From
the formless One
comes all form.
And in time, all form
returns to formlessness
again.

 

What word do you use to describe your essential self?

Some of the more common names I’ve heard it called are:

• the One
• the Whole
• the Unmanifest
• Stillness
• Silence
• Bliss
• the Unknown
• the Center
• Being
• the Great Ground of Being
• Consciousness
• Source

I’ve also heard it simply called Home.

Whatever you choose to call it, it’s the space that’s always here, eternal, unchanging. The space from which all forms originate and into which all forms eventually disappear again.

Is there ever a time when we’re not It? No!

And yet, the nature of being an individual form is to appear—and feel—separate from It. And, in feeling the pain of this separation, to set off in search of It.

The part, feeling itself apart, separate, incomplete—naturally and instinctively seeks to complete itself, to rejoin the whole, to become one again.

On the most obvious level, this is seen through the male/female polarity in which a man and woman become attracted to one another and join together. Often, in the beginning, the couple feels as if they have overcome their separateness and found wholeness in one another.

Ultimately, of course, that’s impossible, as the couple is bound to discover sooner or later. The two can never fully and permanently join. They will always remain “apart,” even if they spend their entire lifetimes together.

Whether consciously or not, whether spiritual seekers or not, we all seek to find our way back Home, to wholeness. For some, the search for completeness is sought through romance. For others, it’s sought through family, friends, money, sex, career, drugs or even through the quest to reach Home itself.

What we don’t realize when we’re madly searching for completeness in these ways (in any way), is that the very search itself is the barrier. The part, in itself, will never be the whole. And so the search for wholeness through anything, through any part, will always be doomed.

For the part to be complete, all it has to do is look past its part-hood. In other words, it just needs to drop the search and notice that it is already what it seeks. No two drops, by joining together, will become the ocean. No amount of searching for the ocean will help the drop become the ocean. For the drop to “find” the ocean, all it has to do is look past its drop-hood. Then it will see that it is already and has always been the ocean.

Likewise, the only way the part can know itself as the whole is to die to its individuality. And then it’s obvious that wholeness is and has always only been masked by this individuality.

If you’ve become lost in your separate identity, how can you find your way Home? Just allow your mind to quiet by turning your attention inwards.  The idea of trying to meditate is intimidating to a lot of people, but it really doesn’t have to be a big deal.  All you have to do is just sit there and be.

 

The Home You Never Left
You are not “on your way” Home.
You are Home.
Here. Now.
This is the Home that
you never left.
This.
It is the only secure place.
Here is where you find
the Peace that Passes Understanding.

 

 

Author: Christy Waltz
Poems: from Notes to Self: Meditations on Being
Image: kellepics on Pixabay