Below is the world view which i have concluded (for myself) is the way to see ourselves and our relationship to ourselves, each other, the universe, and Oneness:
“Home” is “located” inside of “me”, and inside of all beings and things, while that being has breath; while that thing has mass, and is in space and time.
*A few other names for this definition of “Home” might be – “Great Spirit”, “Big I”, “Center of the Universe”, “Origination and Destination and Path Between” “Ground of Being”. It is our sense of “center” or our sense of “completeness”.
It might feel strange to consider this “Home of the Universe” as something which is present inside oneself, but we could similarly say that the universe is in us and through us, and surrounding us…… ubiquitous. So, i am suggesting as well, that each physical form is as much “center” or “home” as any other. We think of “center” as a place, and that there are places which are the center, and places that are not the center.
But in terms of a humans sense of center or home, for us to feel “whole”, we must maintain an awareness of “Home” as being “Present”.
When we gather our sense of Home (or our sense of center, or our sense of completeness) from some OTHER thing, or some entity “outside” our physical body, this sense of Home can be taken from us, leaving us feeling orphaned and alone…. and needy.
In the same way, if our sense of home or center or completeness, relies on the presence of a person, or being in a particular place, we are in a constant state of neediness.
If our sense of home or center or completeness, relies on some particular conditions, we are in a constant state of neediness.
Living centered means that the deep “Me” is NOW, and fully present.
Living centered means that this NOW is perfect and lacking nothing.
Living centered means recognizing and experiencing, that the full presence of; the Great Spirit, Big I, Center of the Universe, Origination and Destination and Path Between, is none other than the deep “ME”.
The Deep Me and the Deep NOW are the same.
Yet the Deep ME contains far more than is “expressed” in the physical temporary entity we know as ourselves…….
No thing can “contain” the Great Spirit. (and this seems like a contradiction) yet everything contains the Great Spirit.
The Great Spirit (in one sense) is the contained and the container, and the space beyond both the contained and the container.
The Great Spirit is, in another sense, Deep Nature, which encompasses all physical nature.
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Notes:
Over a lifetime of considerations, discussions, debates, scriptural and doctrinal studies, i have come to the conclusion that the issues which separate persons, and which create so much pain in the human world are questions regarding our own human nature:
Our lack of understanding of our own nature.
– Our lack of understanding regarding how we exist and why we exist.
Our lack of understanding of our own human relationships with other persons.
Our lack of understanding of our relationship to nature in general
There is also a lack of understanding relating to our “parent” or “creator”:
Is there a creator? What sort of entity would that creator be?
Is the creator a personhood which we can have a relationship with?
If there is a creator, does that creator have expectations of us like our parents do?
As we seem to lack answers about these fundamental questions, we have come to rely on ancient scriptures to find solutions. (And more recently, on science)
But even when we take seriously these answers in the physical world, we have so many varying concepts, that we can’t know which is the most correct, of if they are all simply human constructs and stories.
i would like to suggest that the place we get lost, is in the beginning of the questions, where we assume that this creator is somehow separate from our own nature.
i was also caught in this circular questioning for many years, going round and round…. never making any REAL progress. Therefore, i struggled with “the Potter and the Pot” world view for most of my life.
One day, it became evident, that at the level of the physical world, there seems to be all kinds of “material” differences between a humans existence and the overall creators existence, but that at a deeper level, everything melds into one.
Where that happening of “everything melds into one” is located, is also where all humans, regardless of beliefs, color of their skin, name of their tribe, their location in history, also find kinship.
On the physical plane, there are always differences which can be pointed at, and always will be. We don’t need to look very far to see differences, as even folks of the same tribe, have differences. So if a person is looking for some difference to use as the beginning of a misunderstanding, those excuses are everywhere.
Religious and philosophical debates and discussions of various concepts and beliefs will never end these misunderstandings, as truly the answers are scientific ones, and the science has not penetrated the depths of nature necessary to find satisfying answers.
Deep inside, each one of us feels orphaned. This is why the questions are “felt” by every human being. We all sense that we have been dumped on the side of the road by a parent who didn’t care for us. Only SOME of us are willing to admit this sense.
As long as humans can divide the kinship of humanity into “us” and “them”, we will have “legitimate reasons to hurt one another, and to hurt nature.
Reality is Dharma 