LightBears

by AshaBear

In life on this planet, we are all taught that we are individuals, separate one from the other; and when you look at it from an untutored point of view, that is indeed how it appears. Each human being is a separate being, animals are all separate, trees and flowers and bushes, all the various aspects of life in this world appear to be individual from each other. Separated. If this is truly the case, however, how can we possibly envision the Divine?

From this vantage point, we can only envision the Divine as an individual, separate from ourselves, just as we are separate from one another. Again, from an untutored point of view.  How hard it must be to truly connect with the Divine, if the Divine is separate? We have a difficult enough time connecting with one another, and we can (usually) speak and hear and converse. A mystic may know how to converse with the Divine, I imagine; but how about us ordinary mortals?

Let’s try on an analogy; it’s not the best, but it’s what comes to mind. What if we were to look at ourselves and the other beings on this planet as if we were fingers on a hand? If you look at your hand right now (and you have not been injured in some way), you typically have four fingers and a thumb and then the hand itself is a palm from which the fingers extend. From the perspective of each finger, it might consider itself to be unique because, it’s a finger, so it doesn’t have an eye and can’t perceive the presence of the other fingers except in the sense of feeling. If you rub your fingers together you know that there are more than just one.

Let’s pretend, just for this conversation’s sake, that each finger sees itself as unique, as just one with a capital O. It has the power to bend, to touch; it has the power to create; it has the power to destroy; it has the power of movement in many directions; it has flexibility; and it is self-aware. From its point of view, it is the only one present. It certainly has no awareness of the palm or of any glimmer of the cohesion of the whole.

So, again analogizing, here we human beings are, imagining ourselves as being separate one from another. Just like the finger thinks it is separate. The finger has no awareness that it is connected to the palm or hand. The finger has no awareness that the hand itself is the unity, the uniting force that brings all the fingers together and with their participation is able, united, to create magnificent and wonderful things. 

When we have the illusion that we are separate from each other, such as when the finger has the illusion that it is separate from all else, then we are free to ignore, mistreat, turn our back on, even kill that separate being because there is no apparent connection between us and that other being. If one of your fingers were to disable another finger, the ability of the hand to create, to function, etc. would be significantly diminished; and from the point of the view of the hand, the pain would be immense. Using the analogy of the fingers and the hand, and trying to see ourselves in a similar manner, then we might be able to begin to see that there is a unity that is not perceptible to the individual being but that is nonetheless, undeniably, REAL. 

I’m afraid I’m saying this a little poorly; but my point is to try to say to you today that, just as we see ourselves as separate, one from the other, so do many of us see ourselves as separate from the Divine. However, if we were to look at it from the point of view of the hand, we are separate but united without knowing it: There are invisible, intangible connections between each individual on this planet whether it is a human, an animal, a tree, a bush, an insect, a fish in the ocean, etc.

And just as with the analogy of the hand and fingers, there is an invisible, intangible connection with the Divine. The Divine, like the hand, is connected to each individual being; and all beings present on this planet are indivisibly connected with the Divine.

The Divine is not just an individual, the Divine is The All; and we are all connected to one another and to The All as one.

In the Christian Bible, Jesus is quoted as saying something to the effect of ‘what you do to the least of these my brethren, you do to me.’ To my interpretation, he was trying to say that if you give a blessing, if you treat someone kindly, then you are treating him kindly and giving him a blessing.

So the obverse is true as well. What you do to the least of the brethren, if it is harmful, it is harmful to Jesus, or to whatever other name you choose to give to a manifestation of the Divine in human form. Regardless of what religion you follow, what label you give yourself, and what name you give the Divine, it becomes irrelevant because (using this analogy) all are one.

As you go about your life, remember, if you will, that you are a finger on a hand of immense cosmic magnificence and behave in that manner. Together, we weave a beautiful web, we share a magnificent experience, and the Divine is inextricably woven into everything that we do, say, think, and become. 

I will leave you with this thought to ponder. It may be poorly structured and the point that I am trying to make may not make its way to you or maybe it will. I have no control, I can only offer a perspective that I hope will prove helpful to you, now and in the future! 

Remember always to be a LightBear and to share that light with all the other LightBears around you.

We can light up the universe if we only take a breath and try. Thank you for listening and may you be filled with blessings of all sorts as you go forward!