Sharing some thoughts on Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.   It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  

- Melody Beattie 

"Practicing mindfulness of gratitude consistently leads to a direct experience of being connected to life and the realization that there is a larger context in which your personal story is unfolding. Being relieved of the endless wants and worries of your life's drama, even temporarily, is liberating. Cultivating thankfulness for being part of life blossoms into a feeling of being blessed, not in the sense of winning the lottery, but in a more refined appreciation for the interdependent nature of life. It also elicits feelings of generosity, which create further joy. Gratitude can soften a heart that has become too guarded, and it builds the capacity for forgiveness, which creates the clarity of mind that is ideal for spiritual development." - Philip Moffitt

Happy Thanksgiving! What a beautiful chance to practice gratitude. A friend turned me onto a practice of gratitude, of once a week or more writing down 10 things that I am grateful for. I do this several times a week and it has been so liberating and trans-formative. Especially if I am in a bad mood, reflecting on gratitude and writing it down brings me out of my funk and reminds me how amazing life truly is. Even for the difficult things in life, we can offer gratitude for them because inevitably they end up teaching us, showing so much about ourselves and transforming us.

May you have a beautiful, joyous and gratitude-full Thanksgiving,

Charlie

the wonder of the Now

Nothing ever happened in the past; it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.

- Eckhart Tolle

The only moment that exists is now. The future only exists in our thoughts, in our plans and dreams but as soon as the future comes it is now. The past only exists in our memories. The only moment that is, is now, this everchanging, present moment.

That is why staying present in the now, as much as possible, is the path to real happiness and fulfillment. Sure we need to make plans for the future. We can shape the direction of the present moment with our actions. We can shape the way it goes with some planning and stategizing, but most of us spend way to much time worrying about the future and forget about the present moment.

Can you just be present in this moment without being lost in thoughts about the future or the past? Just noticing the feeling of your breath, the chair you're sitting on, the things or people around you. When you are present in the now, the world comes alive and becomes vibrant. When you are present in the now you find the happiness and fulfillment that only exists when you are in the now. Happiness and fulfillment cannot exist in the future, they can only exist right here and now. Maybe if we all stop searching so hard for happiness and fulfillment in the future, we can find it right now.

Can you let go of the past? The past doesn't really exist either. The past only exists in memory, thoughts in your mind. The past you remember isn't reality. Reality is this moment, right here and now. This moment never becomes the past, as soon as it passes it is replaced again by this moment and again and again.

Its important to honor the past. We have collective stories about the past that are important in helping us function together in community but how many people get lost in their stories about past and forget completely about the present moment? Haven't we all done this? Our stories of the past can be like prisons that hold us until we set ourselves free by letting go of our stories.

It is only when we are in the moment, free from the past and the future, that we can be fully alive, at peace, happy and fulfilled. As my friend Jim Dreaver says, "honor the past, keep an eye on the future but have your awareness right here, right now." We can find all the peace, happiness and fulfillment we crave here and now because peace, happiness and fulfillment can only exist here and now. They are available to us immediately as soon as we can become present to the moment.

Sometimes we may fool ourselves into believing that we can know the the future or the past but when we realize that we can only really know this moment then we can find the deepest peace, happiness and fulfillment, that which surpasses all knowing, the wonder of the Now.

Enjoy it,
Charlie

Standing on the Shanky Ladder of Hope

Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground, you will always keep your balance.

- the Tao te Ching (Stephen Mitchel translation)

After the last entry about the power of hope it felt fitting to bring in a little balance from the Tao and remember to be cautious with hope and success. Hope and success are great and but they can lead to suffering when we rely on them for our happiness.

Hope makes us feel good, fills us with optimism and inspiration but it can also lead to disappointment if the thing we hope doesn’t happen. If we are really strongly hoping for something, if it doesn’t happen then we can get really depressed, disillusioned or cynical.

Isn’t this what some people are now starting to feel about the Obama presidency? Feeling like he hasn’t fulfilled so many of the great hopes and expectations held by so many? Indeed pinning our hopes on one political leader is like standing on a very shaky ladder.

Success too can be shaky when it leads us to overconfidence. A little success today can lead to disappointment tomorrow if our success doesn’t continue. So often success can lead to pride and narrow mindedness. A little failure once and while is healthy because we learn humility from it. To learn balance on the ladder sometimes we need to fall off it a couple of times.
 
Balanced between success and failure, free from needing the future to be one way or another, clear and present in the moment, at peace with the way things are, true happiness and fulfillment can be found, here and now and in every moment.

The Power of Hope: The Significance of Barack Obama's Election

(I meant to get this out last week on the one year anniversary of Barack Obama’s election but writing this piece became a larger project than I anticipated. Still I want to share it because I believe the election of Barack Obama was one of the most significant events in recent history and it marks a major spiritual shift not just for America but for the entire world.)

On November 4, 2008 American choose to believe in the positive power of hope over the debilitating influence of fear; America said "yes we can" after years of complacency and decline; America affirmed that it still believes in its highest principles, that "all are equal, all are free and that all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."* It was the day that America elected Barack Husein Obama president of the United States of America.

Regardless of how anyone feels about the current policies of president Obama his election signified that a major shift has occurred in the United States. The election was significant in so many ways, politically and socially, but I also believe it had a deeper spiritual significance. I’d like to share some of the ways I think Barack Obama’s election was significant.

The Significance of Refuting George Bush

Perhaps the most obvious significance of the election was that it showed that the majority of Americans were tired of Republican policies and George W Bush. After 8 dark years, most Americans had had it with the Republicans corrupt economic policies, out-dated social beliefs, anti-environmental actions and arrogant foreign policy. Americans had had it with the abuse of American power abroad and at home, the restrictions on civil liberties and the flouting of the rule of law. Americans were tired of Bush’s "cowboy" policies and knew it was time for a major change.

The First African-American President

Even for those many Americans who don't support the Democratic party or the positions of Barack Obama took no one can refute the incredible significance of electing the first African-American president. With a 400 year history of slavery and racism, race is still a very deep and significant issue in America today. We have struggled for a long time to realize the vision that all people are created equal. The struggle has been waged through Civil War, the long marches and legal battles of the Civil Rights Movement and finally through the strenuous campaign to elect the nations first president of African ancestry.

Barack Obama's election to president means so much to so many on this one issue alone and it marks a major advancement along the road to full racial equality. Although we still have a long way to go we are getting closer to the day when a person can truly be judged only by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

The Power of Hope

While many have recognized the significance of the last two issues, not as many have recognized the significance of Barack Obama’s emphasis on hope as a theme and a message of his campaing. Barack Obama inspired millions with his positive vision for the future of American and the world. Hi inspired in people the power of hope.

From the start of his candidacy Barack Obama and the people working for him chose to center their campaign around the positive message of hope. They understood that encouraging hope is one of the most powerful tools to achieve real and meaningful change. Hope inspires us. Hope arouses us to believe that anything is possible. Hope instills in us the conviction that we can truly achieve whatever we want. Hope empowers us with the ability to overcome cynicism, self-doubt and fear, all the things that prevent us from realizing our dreams.

Barack Obama and his campaign inspired hope in so many ways:

Hope for peace - After many years of the "war on terror," the on-going bloody conflict in Afghanistan and the unnecessary war in Iraq people recognized a hope for peace with Barack Obama’s candidacy. Barack Obama was one of the few democrats who hadn't meekly caved into the Bush led hysteria over Iraq. Even though it now appears that president Obama may be getting us more bogged down in Afghanistan, believing this is the best option open to him, I think most people realize that he fundamentally believes in peace and the importance of international cooperation in settling conflicts.

Hope for the environment - After 8 years of denial about Global Warming and other environmental problems, Obama’s election gave hope that we can work towards solving the issues around climate change. Barack Obama and others in the environmental movement recognize that the issue of Global Warming is actually an opportunity to create new kinds of jobs and industries that are clean and sustainable. The endless stalling and denials of the Republicans has only served to make the problems worse and the transition more difficult. The recent climate bill that passed the House of Representatives was landmark legislation, flawed and far less than what is needed, but still a first and a start in the right direction. Obama recognizes that America must be a leader in all issues related to the world's environmental problems.

Hope for ending corruption in Washington - Yeah right, that might be too much to hope for, but the fact that Obama rose outside of the Washington establishment gave hope that the corrupt politics of Washington can be changed. Remember early in his campaign it was the small donations of thousands of people that made his candidacy viable. Thousands of people gave money though the Internet and volunteered their time and effort. Like many I was inspired like I have never been before to work on a political campaign. Showing up to volunteer one Saturday morning in Reno, Nevada with thousands of other volunteers, lined up in the cold around the block, moved me deeply. The enthusiasm and hope of the volunteers was palpable and you could sense that this was really unprecedented. People were there because they believed in hope and Obama represented the possibility of real change.

Hope for economic equality - Since the 1970s the size of the middle class has been steadily shrinking in the U.S. with more and more money ending up in fewer and fewer hands at the top. This can directly be attributed to the way the government regulates, or rather fails to regulate, corporate America. The economic meltdown created by Wall Street greed and irresponsibility happened because corporate America has almost entirely bought off Washington and prevented any meaningful government regulation. The Republican party has been especially complacent, always chanting the mantra of more deregulation. The stupidity of this approach to government policy was finally laid bare with the economic meltdown. Government has to assure a safe, transparent and fair playing field for the economy to thrive and for good jobs to be created. Just how powerful these big financial institutions have become is demonstrated by how hard it has been for president Obama to get meaningful regulation in place. But yet again, Obama's election shows that when the people are mobilized change can happen, it is possible.

Hope for International Cooperation and Understanding - After years of American policies that alienated much of the world and made us look arrogant, that America could so quickly pivot, electing a man with an African father and Muslim heritage, inspired the world. It has given hope to millions that anything is truly possible and that they and their children can have a better lives.

In Bali, Indonesia where I recently lived for seven months, telling a Balinese person that I was from America most often brought out an enthusiastic thumbs up, a big smile and one word "Obama"! What a change from the last eight years. All the people I met in Indonesia were well aware that Obama had lived in the capital, Jakarta, for a time in his childhood, and they were proud of it. Barack Obama has already become a world-wide iconic symbol of hope, like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.

The Shift

The election of Barack Hussein Obama signals that a major has occurred in America. As Obama said of his opponents: they have "fail(ed) to understand that the ground has shifted beneath them."* America is now a multi-racial country where race, sex and even sexual preference have less meaning. To the young generation, who overwhelming came out for Obama, racism, sexism and homophobia are issues of the past. Polls have repeatedly shown this and that the great majority of young people are very more in line with the hopes and aspirations of Obama’s agenda of change.

Unless the Republican party changes their agenda their future looks bleak. Their base is aging and shrinking. Even as Obama has struggled to bring about the promised change and people are getting impatient, the Republicans have shown that they have no agenda for the future except to say no. The shift has happened, change is coming, its only a matter of when and how smoothly.

Spiritual Shift

But much deeper than this social shift is the spiritual shift that has been occurring in America and around the world. The hope that Obama symbolizes inspires a hope that our leaders will recognize the truth that more and more people are beginning to understand. It is the truth truth that we are all interconnected.

We live in an increasingly interconnected world. In this digital age of instant, world-wide communication and a globalized economy no part of the world is isolated from the rest. What happens in one part of the world affects the rest. Our problems today are also global. Issues around poverty, conflict, the economy and the environment all have global repercussions.

With these global problems there is a rising conscious awareness that we are interconnected with everyone else on the planet. We more and more realize that we all share the same problems, hopes and dreams. We more and more realize that we are interconnected with the environment and any damage done to the environment anywhere in the world affects all of us around the world. There is a growing awareness that we must protect the natural world and take care of each other to secure a safe and prosperous future for any of us.

Understanding that we are all interconnected is also a spiritual understanding because the more we realize that we are interconnected with each other and the natural world the more realize our little egos don’t amount to much. We begin to see ourselves in others and realize we are all the same. When we recognize ourselves in others we learn humility, compassion and tolerance. It is these qualities that are needed if we are to solve the world’s problems.

The election of Barack Obama demonstrates that more and more people are beginning to understand this interconnectedness. I believe that is why Barack Obama’s message of hope resonated so powerfully with so many people. Each hope that Barack Obama’s campaign inspired, the hopes for peace and understanding, cooperation and equality, care for the environment and a sustainable economy, these all reflect an understanding that we are interconnected. Millions of people around the world expressed their support for Obama and came out to work for his election here because they recognize that Obama gets it. This gives me the greatest hope that we have truly made a shift. It seems that more and more are seeing that we are all interconnected and because of that I believe we will be able to get through the challenges ahead, heal the planet and revitalize our communities.

Now, a year later, some people have lost sight of the vision, hope and inspiration that Barack Obama’s campaign symbolized. Many of his supporters have mixed feelings about what he has been able to achieve. Some people say he has pushed for too much, too soon, in too many different directions. Some say he has not gone far enough and has comprised too much in order to get anything through the corrupt Congress. But regardless of whether he fails or succeeds, the shift has occurred. With or without him thousands of people are changing the world for the better, working on the issues of poverty and disease, conflict resolution and environmental sustainability. Perhaps above all we should be inspired us to remember that we got Barack Obama elected and that we can make the changes we want to see. As the saying goes, we must “be the change.” Reflecting now with some pride about the election of Barack Obama and feeling optimism about the future, I say “Yes We Did” and “Yes We Can!”


Thanks for reading, I really value your comments, criticisms, feedback and suggestions,
Charlie

* Text from Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech, January 20, 2009

Some inspiration from the Tao, ...Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?

I am so humbled and inspired when I read the words of the Tao. I feel it speaks so deeply to the truth of the way things really are. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this, one of my favorite passages from Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Tao Te Ching.

Can you coax your mind from its wanderings and keep to its original course?
Can you let your body become supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.

Can you coax your mind from its wanderings and keep to its original course?

It is the nature of the mind to wander, isn’t it? Can any of us control our thoughts for long? They seem to come one after another, one leading to the next, until something distracts us from our thoughts and brings us back to the moment. How many times have you caught yourself wondering, “why was I thinking about that?” We have so little control over our thoughts.

Our thoughts also try so hard to make us believe that they are so important. A thought comes telling us to do something or believe something and we believe it, as if it were the Gospel. But how reliable are our thoughts. I think its safe to say most of our thoughts aren’t that reliable. How often do we misjudge or underestimate or get ourselves into trouble by believing that our thoughts are so right?

This is not to say that thinking isn’t a powerful tool. It is perhaps the most powerful tool in the Universe. It is from our thoughts that imagination arises and its from the power of our imagination that everything in the human-made world has been created. Everything from art to music, to this very computer you’re staring at started in someone’s imagination. But our thoughts can also be quite destructive, full of self-criticism, doubt, fear and anger. All of the world’s wars, holocausts and weapons also started with someone’s imagination.

Is it then possible to coax our mind from its wanderings? Is it possible to control our thoughts rather than being controlled by them? It is of course possible. To free ourselves from our thoughts we can practice is to stepping back and observing our thoughts. If we can slow down and become the observer of our thoughts rather than their hurried servant we can be free to choose which thoughts we want to follow This is what the practice of meditation is all about, the practice of stepping back, observing our thoughts and then being liberated to choose which path to follow. We can then come back to the original course which is the way of harmony, peace, happiness and fulfillment. We can lead the lives we want to lead.

Can you let your body become supple as a newborn child's?

A child is always in the moment. It may be happy or sad, demanding or giving, but it is always in the moment, unhindered with judgements about the past and the future. And because it doesn’t hold onto the past or future it is alive to the fullness of life in this moment, the only moment that truly exists. It is free from worry, tension and anxiety which we as adults pile onto ourselves, becoming more and more rigid and tense. To be in the moment means to be supple, to be flexible, open-minded and free from attachments to the past and future. We can all learn a lot about this from small children.

Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light?

Honestly, this is the one I have the most difficulty with. What does it mean to see the light? We can go so many different ways with this. A lot of people describe their peak spiritual experience as being filled with light. Perhaps everything is light but we just don’t see it. Scientists say everything is energy. That is Einstein’s E=MC2. All matter is energy and energy is interchangeable with light. Light is energy that is moving along what’s called the electro-magnetic spectrum. We can only see a tiny band of the EM spectrum with our eyes but everything is radiating some light, mostly at parts of the spectrum that we can’t see. The body radiates light too. Perhaps when we are still, quiet to the truth beyond our thoughts, it is possible to see this light.

Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will?

Can we be still, until the obvious course of action comes forth. When we think we know best we feel right about imposing our will upon others. But when we know that our thoughts are limited, that at best we can have only some glimpse of the truth, then we are humble. With this humility, we open ourselves to love. We open ourselves to love and accept others for who they are and to love and accept ourselves as well. When we lead with this love others naturally follow because they feel loves embrace, its unconditional acceptance. They feel the truth of love and they know that it only works for their ultimate happiness and fulfillment.

Haven’t all the world’s great inspiring leaders led with humility and love? Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, on and on. Others may lead with fear, anger and hatred but their leadership never lasts long. Fear, anger and hatred always in the end succumb to love. Can you name one time in history where it hasn’t?

Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course?

When we let things take their natural course don’t they usually work out? By trying to force things we waste so much time and energy and create stress. Can we accept things as they are and know that they will change as everything does?When we are patient and act from love, change happens effortless and for the good. When we are impatient and try to force change by exerting our will or opinion onto things how well do things work out? We usually only create resistance. Isn’t that where so many of our current problems come from?

Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?

When we can observe our thoughts and stay present in the moment we open ourselves up to see the truth of the universe, what it truly is: One. Before we believe the thoughts that arise in our mind, everything in the universe is undivided, inseparable, part of an one, interconnected whole. It is not until we look at a tree and believe the thought that labels it “tree” do we divide the world. What is a tree before we label it “tree?” It is indescribable, infinitely complex and inseparable from everything around it. We create the label “tree” by associating it with memories of other things we have called “tree” which are only thoughts about the past. But can we really know for sure that any of our thoughts about the past are true? Try this as an experiment. Go for a walk outside and try not to label any of the things you see. You will see them in a new light, with the openness and spontaneity of a child. This is how we can understand the truth of how things really are.

Giving birth and nourishing, having without possessing, acting with no expectations, leading and not trying to control: this is the supreme virtue.

This is the way of the Tao (the Way) moving and loving in the world without possessing. What is there to possess? You are already one with everything. Everything is constantly changing and all that comes into your hands will someday pass out of them. So what is there to grasp onto? Perhaps it is this grasping that is the source of all suffering. When we are free we can act without grasping, without expectation of the result because we know that ultimately we really have no control over the result. We can only act the best way we can and the result we want will come or it will not. This is a letting go of control, of the illusion of control. This is the supreme virtue for it sets us free!

Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. I value your comments, suggestions, feedback and criticisms.
Charlie

Sitting On A Chair in the Sky!

(Originally Posted August 1, 2009)

If you haven’t seen the video yet of Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show yet, I highly recommend it (HERE). Louis hilariously lampoons all of us how we take everything for granted when how truly amazing the world is. Ever feel grumpy on an airplane? Remember YOU ARE SITTING IN A CHAIR IN THE SKY! It is so amazing and something we can take so easily for granted.

(Coming in over Bali)

Recently I was flying back to Bali from Bangkok and staring out the window I was captivated by the scene below. If it’s a daytime flight I always try to get the window seat so I can stare out the window. Here are some of the notes I wrote about it.

Looking out the window at an awesome view. Thousands of little white clouds hovering just ever so slightly above the sea. All of them evenly spaced and heading off into what seems an infinite horizon.

The sea looks so beautiful from up here. In this light the blue sea seems to have a translucent purple sheen to it. It really looks like a giant piece of rippled purple glass. I have never seen the sea look this color before. Magnificent.

The clouds just seem to hover there, just above it, content in their place. Why shouldn’t they be content? The universe they exist in is perfect. Perfect, the clouds have nothing to do. They need nothing and want for nothing. They are content in their splendor. Nothing to do though they will eventually be done in. Heated by the sun and pushed by the winds they will eventually be transformed into rain or bunched into larger clouds. But right now these clouds care not. For them nothing changes even as all things change.

A lone ship passes below, intent on its course. It cuts the only straight line across this infinite horizon. Its purposeful, linear direction must be humbled by the untroubled immensity of sky and sea all around. Perhaps someone on board is looking up at the same clouds that I’m looking down on and is as moved as me by the immense beauty. Perhaps he is looking up at me right now and wondering if someone on the plane is thinking the same thing. I smile.

Consciousness

(origially posted July 23, 2009)
What is consciousness? The word is used many different ways. Usually it is used to mean the state of being aware, of being conscious of something, something within oneself or something external. Consciousness also has many different states and levels. There is the conscious state when we are awake and there is the unconscious state when we are asleep. There is also the subconscious state where thoughts and beliefs lie mostly hidden below the surface of our awareness. We often think of levels of consciousness as well, as in a person has a higher level of consciousness than a snail or a plant.

But to me consciousness has a much deeper meaning. Consciousness is what you are. More than anything else, more than your body, your thoughts or your feelings consciousness is what you truly are in the deepest sense.

If you ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” what answer comes to mind? Your thoughts, your emotions, your physical body? These seem to be the most common answers that arise. But think about this, that which you consider “you,” that most basic sense of who you are, whatever that is, it has to be unchanging right? Whatever that “you” is, it does not change. Your thoughts, your feelings, and even your body change but something within you does not. You are the same “you” that you were 5 minutes ago, 5 years ago or 5 minutes after your birth, even while everything else has changed. Whatever “you” are is the thing that is aware of everything changing around you, your thoughts, your feelings, your physical body and all the things around you in the world. You are consciousness.

Consciousness can be thought of as a field upon which all your thoughts, feelings and the physical experience of your body play. Everything changes around it but your consciousness doesn’t change. It simply is. You can also think of it like the ocean where all your thoughts, feelings and physical experiences are like waves that rise and fall and yet your consciousness is unaffected. Consciousness is the pure state of your being.

To put this in an even deeper perspective, not only are you consciousness, as am I and everybody else, but we are actually the same Consciousness. I capitalize the word here because if you really examine consciousness you’ll find that we are actually all experiencing the same Consciousness. This is the secret that sages have known since time immemorial and that modern science is just beginning to understand. We are all of one Consciousness, the field upon which all things in the universe play. Consciousness is the one, single unified whole. From it everything arises from our individual thoughts, feeling and experiences to everything else in the universe. It is that thing that religions have God, Allah, Truth, the Way, the Great Spirit, to name just a few.

Does this seem hard to believe? We think that we each have our own consciousness, that we are separate, distinct beings, but in truth separation is an illusion. It is just a belief, a very powerful belief, but still just a belief. It is a creation of our thoughts; or rather, it is created by believing that our thoughts are absolutely true. We believe the thoughts our minds that tell us that we are the body, feelings, thought it self, and that the world around us is a separate thing. It’s fair to believe this. Most of us are trained to believe this from birth and our culture and society promotes this belief because almost everyone is caught in it. But it is not really true. It is like a dream that seems real until you wake up or like a magician’s illusion that is transfixing until you see that it is just a trick.

The truth is we are one Consciousness experiencing itself as you and me and everything else in the universe. Everything that we take to be separate, our thoughts, physical bodies and everything around us arise out of Consciousness and will eventually return to Consciousness.

(Can you find where the whirlpool begins and the river ends?)

Perhaps a good analogy for understanding how all separation is illusory is to image Consciousness as a fast moving river. A river like this has countless eddies and whirlpools. If you look at a single whirlpool you it can appear as a separate entity from the rest of the river but if you look more closely its impossible to tell where the whirlpool ends and the rest of the river begins. They are seamlessly interconnected. The whirlpools are the river. They appear to emerge from the river and they return to it. Like this everything arises from Consciousness, returns to it and is inseparable from it.

Consciousness creates the physical universe. For it is from Consciousness that our thoughts arise and it is from our thoughts that we create the physical universe.

(Classic view of the atom and electron)

After hundreds of years of demonstrating that the world is made up of separate things, science is now beginning to understand that the universe is one interconnected whole and that it all arises out of Consciousness. This is happening in the fields of biology, geology and ecology where it is beginning to be understood that everything on the planet is part of one interconnected system and that affecting any one part of the system affects the whole. But in the field of quantum physics they are beginning to understand its even deeper than that, that everything is not only interconnected but is created out of an infinite field of potential that becomes the physical universe only when Consciousness makes it so. Let me try to explain.

(A quantum view of a water molecule with its electron clouds)

For many years, and even to this day, most people have thought that the universe is made out of solid things with some space in between. We thought that the smallest things were atoms and then later the component parts of atoms: protons, neutrons and electrons. Now we have found even smaller pieces but as physicists have delved deeper and deeper into the atom what they’ve found is that all of these particles aren’t really particles at all. They really only exist in a state of potential, as a statistical probability until someone, a conscious observer looks at them.

Lets take electrons for example. When they were first discovered it was thought that they were like tiny particles orbiting the nucleus of atoms, like planets orbiting the sun. But later it was discovered that electrons aren’t really physical things at all but exist everywhere and nowhere around the atom at the same time. They found that the only time the electron comes out of its cloud of potential and becomes a physical thing is when someone tries to measure or observe it. What this means is that it takes a conscious observer to “freeze” the electron out of its field of potential into a physical form. The electron exists everywhere and nowhere until an observer looks at it and then it appears in one spot. Similar studies have also found that this is true for all atomic particles which means that the entire universe exists only as pure potential, it has infinite possibilities until we, the observers, “freeze” it into one possibility. We literally, each second, from infinite possibilities create the universe, as we know it. And ultimately, who is the observer? You guessed it, Consciousness. Pretty mind blowing stuff, right?

These same discoveries in Quantum Physics also support the idea that there is just one Consciousness creating the whole universe. When scientists first discovered this relationship between the observer (Consciousness) and observed (everything in the physical universe) they were perplexed by a giant problem. If a particle of anything only comes into physical existence in the presence of an observer, what happens when there are two observers? In the example of the electron, if two people are observing it at the same time, who gets to chose where it appears out of its cloud of potential? Which consciousness chooses? This has baffled and troubled scientists for a long time because most of them assume we each have independent consciousnesses. But some recent quantum physicists like Amit Goswami and Fred Allen Wolf (two of the featured physicists in the popular documentary What The Bleep We Know) have put it together that there can only be one Consciousness that is creating the whole physical universe. It is our unified Consciousness that creates our shared reality out of infinite possibilities. Like the world’s mystics, they have also concluded that our experience of separation is an illusion. We are one Consciousness.

It is from the one Consciousness that even the illusion of our separation is created. Why? Well that’s a whole nother discussion that I’m excited to explore with you later. But for now this feels like enough. I hope this hasn’t fried your brain too much and if it has, maybe that’s a good thing. As for me, I’m going out for a walk.

If you want to find out more information about these amazing discoveries on quantum physics and the field of Consciousness I highly recommend two books. The first and most accessible book I have found on the subject is by Michael Talbot, called The Holographic Universe. The second and also really good is by Amit Goswami called The Self-Aware Universe. I know there are a lot of other good ones out there too.

I would be grateful for your comments, questions and musings. Thanks for reading.