We perceive the outer world primarily through our senses and arrange the incoming information according to our states of consciousness. Since we each have different perceptions, we see our world somewhat differently from one another. Our perceptions of the outer world, together with social conditioning and the influence of the mass media, develop much of our personalities, which become more and more entrenched as we grow in age. We believe this is who we are and that we cannot change. We attempt to convince others to think the way we think, for this gives us validation that we are right. We often like to change the people around us, but we ourselves say that we cannot change, for this is the way we are.
Are we really who and what we claim to be- our personalities? Or are we something or someone else? The scriptures tell us that we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:24), but who or what is God? Can anyone with conviction say what God is and what this image is, without quoting what he or she has been told by someone else? If we cannot know for ourselves what God is, how can we claim that we know His image? What is the rational solution? Perhaps it should remain a mystery.
But perhaps there is a way to solve this dilemma. The scripture tells us, “Let us go into the closet and shut the door” to our inner sanctuary (Matthew 6:6). There we will get to know this stranger: the image of God, the real Self, and even perhaps God, as proclaimed in the Yoga texts. We will get to know that we are a reflection of His being. There we will find that this is our trusted friend, our wisest teacher, our best advisor. There we will find, the source of all goodness, all strength, all power, and all love. We will realize that God is in the deepest part of silence. He is the Holiest of the Holy. There we can feel and know the closeness of the relationship between God and ourselves. There we will get to know that only in consciousness has there been any separation where man appears as two- the ego and the Self- just as our spirits and our bodies seem to be two but in reality are just one.
God fills both heaven and Earth. This was the great revelation of Jacob in the silence. He had slept, yet in a great burst of illumination he saw the outer world as an expression of the image he held within. So impressed was he, that he called out, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not” (Genesis 28:16). God, the Divine Law, is present in the Earth and in the body. Man will eventually learn to understand that the real gate to heaven is his own consciousness.
It is the ladder, a state of consciousness similar to what Jacob experienced in his vision, which each of us must climb before we can enter that silent, secret place of the most high and find that we are in the very centre of every created thing, one with all things visible and invisible. We are a part of God’s creative process and not apart from it.
A vision similar to what Jacob experienced came to Jesus (see John 1:35-51). It is said that when the heavens were opened unto Him, He saw the wonderful law of expression whereby ideas conceived in the Divine mind come forth into expression and manifest as forms. So perfect is this law of expression revealed to Jesus, that at once he saw that all form may be transformed through a change in one’s consciousness?
Non-dual Yoga teaches that man is a reflection (an image) of God. Yoga calls this reflection the Self, the Atman, the “I am,” and the Christ within. It teaches that through meditation, through the inner way, we must first get to know the Self, the Christ within, or the Christ Consciousness, before God can be revealed to us. When we raise our consciousness from ordinary consciousness to super consciousness in deep meditation, we will realize God.
In Psalm 46:10 it is written, “Be still and know that I am God.” What does this mean? It means not only that we must be quiet and listen, but also that our minds must be stilled.
Patanjali 2nd yoga sutra states: “Yoga-oneness with the object contemplated, chitta-mind, vritti-modification, nirodha-cessation,” which translated literally means, yoga is the result of stopping the fluctuations which normally occur in the mind.
When the body is relaxed and the mind is still, we enter into a state of super consciousness. It is here where we experience oneness, wholeness, and union.
Many of the religious teachers in my experience don’t teach the need to “be still, to be in silence.” They tell that to have a relationship with God is attained through reading the bible. This is unfortunate because just reading implies that we learn about something, but not actually getting to know it
If you ask a monk what God is, he may tell you, “He is ever-conscious, ever-existing bliss, joy, and love.” Why will he say so? It’s because he experiences these attributes when he is meditating on the God within.
Our highest purpose in life is Self and God realization. This leads us to inner freedom and peace and at the same time it will unlock our hidden potential. In the words of Jesus: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things will be given unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
Let us pray that we come to realize that God is nearer to us than anything, for God is our own Consciousness.
“The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
The stranger in the body temple if you have not already guessed is our real Self, but we have forgotten and have substituted our ego in place of it.
Peace be with us.
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