Have you ever considered what separates us from the rest of the natural world?

I believe it’s not only that we are aware, but also that we’re aware that we are aware, and more than that, we are able to communicate these facts to each other by way of speech and the written word.

Through books, articles, the Internet and audio/video recordings we can communicate with those who share the time we spend on Earth.

We are even able to share our thoughts with those not yet born.

It is worth considering, then, what it is we want to say to those able to hear our voice or read our written words—both now and in the years to come.

People use their consciousness for many things in their day to day lives; to pursue belief systems, intimate relationships, friendships, careers, creating wealth, leisure activities and the like. We all have personal preferences—each one of us is seeking the best way to find personal happiness and fulfilment.

And yet what if there is a more direct path to what often turns out to be an elusive goal?

What if by using our own consciousness, we could find a level of alertness that enabled us to rest in a place of acceptance, peace, joy and, of course, happiness at all times?

I believe all you need to get there is an open mind and a little of my (maybe failing) logic.

Are you awake—I mean fully awake?

Perhaps none of us have been in such a place yet; we have been told that we use less than 10 percent of our brains’ neural pathways. But, I do hope as you read my words you are as awake as you’ve ever been to the possibilities contained within human consciousness.

Religion claims that god made us in his image, atheism suggests we have made god in our own image, but what if…we have made up the whole story of our own human lives?

What if we are pure consciousness expressed collectively and holographic in a material world?

Our decision to concentrate all our existence on material matters would be experientially valid, but still missing the joy and the depth of the consciousness we have available to us.

We are here and we need to play our part physically, but not to forget the deeper truth of who we are.

To consider such a notion would make nonsense of the desire to “have our own way.” Because, when seen at the deeper level, what else is it possible for us to have other than our own way?

If we are each an autonomous expression of pure consciousness, then at the place where all consciousness is joined we can see that our actions and inactions are both parts we play in the current construct of material “reality.”

Reality, then, would be an expression of our own desires—conscious or subconscious. We can create the outcomes we desire because we create our own world.

Physically we are made out of star stuff.

But our consciousness, our awareness, our awake-ness when we discover it, is nothing less than the observer that makes this “reality” possible.The observer—the one who weighs our lives and our experience of the physical world.

That which we seek is within us, and it is seeking us, longing for us to be aware of its non-judgemental and loving acceptance of who we are. In looking for “home,” we have merely left that place in some prodigal manner.

It is time to come back to our senses.

We live in a material and physical construct of duality, but our “awareness,” the observer within, doesn’t have to remain there all the time.

On a physical level we have to accept the permanence of duality, but in the place of pure consciousness we don’t. In that place, we can accept the positive and the negative sides of our nature and integrate them as part of the whole of who we are.

Our worthiness is not an issue—we are loved come what may; we have thought that love is lost, but love is not gone, love can never leave! The mind is interested in the many stories we tell ourselves, and we allow these stories to define our lives and who we are.

But, we are not these stories.

The waves that rise up in our lives all dissipate and break, and then all that remains is the calmness of the ocean. The ocean is the great sea of love, peace, joy and happiness, and we are that ocean.

We are love.

Our thoughts and experiences come and go like the waves, but that which is permanent is the ocean of love. If we believe these things to be true, then life can no longer be thought of as a bodily function—a geographical location. The true seeker is not interested in the drama of physical life.

The true seeker is looking for the beloved, and the journey to the beloved is one of simplicity.

The beloved.

The one who accepts us fully, the one who is and always has been at home waiting for us to come to our senses—is the one who left there too.

The true meaning of life and existence is this: we are unconditional love and it is the purpose of each one of us to express that love to ourselves.

When we awaken to our true nature,  all will be well within our physical reality.

Love elephant and want to go steady?

Sign up for our (curated) daily and weekly newsletters!

Apprentice Editor: Amanda Fleming Taylor / Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photos: elephant journal archives