Every ticking clock has left its mark in the universe with resonant strains, so too have our lives that reckon with place for a time. Every moment has the potential for solemnity that imparts greater understanding. An experience, profound or otherwise, identifies with its reality calling forth something from the soul that blesses us with new understanding.
From a Christian perspective, some contend that the conscience is tied to the soul, and we are in the process of purifying the soul to get heaven. Jesus and his teaching is the way to salvation.
The closest thing we have to identifying the characteristics of the soul is the phrase “I Am.”
Biblically speaking when Abraham asks God his name, God replies, “I am that I am.” Moses asks God’s name and God responds, “Tell them, I am what I am.” I will choose what I will become. When Jesus is asked if he is a sacred entity, he responds, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (John 8:58)
The soul is not one thing, not one feeling, not one expression. It is as illusive to identify as God. Some say it is the breath of God. Some theologians like Bernard Lonergan have called it the “kiss of God.”
There is a distinct quality to the soul that most theologians and quantum scientists may agree upon. It is said to be “everlasting.” The first rule of thermodynamics is “You cannot kill energy.” It goes on and on, so some believe the power of love has an everlasting quality to it that transcends time, space, universes and life itself.
“I am” calls forth the undeniable presence of existence. An atheist may deny God but an atheist cannot deny the presence of existence. The living, breathing expression of who we are is a recognition of something that any religion worth its weight considers sacred. The way we shape the characteristics that define who we are is up to us.
Either we recognize the sacred entity and use it for good, inviting others to see its power and how it can be used to build a rich Kingdom where kindness, love and acceptance and an all- pervasive force for good, or we can build the kingdom of individual need, suppressing acceptance and inclusion, suppressing peace and justice, a worldly sensibility where selfish lies serve the flesh for a time in the name of individuality. The former is heavenly, the latter initiates hell on earth and history has proven this.
The choice you make is the difference between working toward enlightenment and connection to a greater force at work in the cosmos and the stagnate, destructive nature that collapses, closes in on itself and festers in the mud of decadent desire and self-imposed suffering.
Most religions believe that the very breath of the soul is claiming dignity in its highest regard.
Any person who calls forth “The Great I AM” is announcing the power of Y-wey, the Brahman, the 99 names of Allah, Buddha consciousness, Christ consciousness, The Tao, the indescribable bliss and feeling of tender blessedness some call God. This is why the “beautiful noise” of sanctified Oneness inspires people to go deeper.
When we claim our “I AM” nature, we are pointing to the scintillating point of harmony where everything comes together and the point of living resounds with clarity. It is the angel dancing on the head of a pin that needs no explanation. It is the confounding expression of awe we’ve heard in the sacred song of being.
It is the peak experience of knowing there is something more in the dazzling art of an all-consuming usurping power and humbling ourselves before the altar of experience itself.
The great philosophers, poets and saints have pointed to it, but no one thing can truly express it. It has to be experienced individually.
People may have glimpsed this bliss through a drug but my guess is that even the best hallucinogen won’t come close to understanding its true power — only death can bring that in time. Every struggle we endure, every preemptive moment of anxiety that wreaks havoc on the mind is silenced by it and the only way to reach it is through the day-to-day meandering through the world until it is given to us when we need it to help us realize more. On to the next dimension for something new.
Until then we are trapped in the paradox of darkness and light, goodness and evil, doing what’s right and knowing the right; mingling with our intuitions and working to maximize our joys against the landscape of this creation; trying to rise above our shame for wrongful actions and indiscretions and inability to capture this lightning in a bottle.
The alteration of consciousness is just one part of it and the older I get the more I see that there is potential for multi-dimensional expressions of it. In the quietest moments my imagination has taken me there, then I’m back reminded of how humbling this life is – tripping in the subtle aches and creaks of the bones. No matter how I try to articulate the experience I falter and laugh at my own folly.
Bemused by the limited expression, all I can say is, “I am.”
spirit beat 