Existence is a remarkable thing. Everything, from the atom to the galaxy, is part of a greater whole. As human beings, we too are an integral part of this whole, but living as we are, we don’t seem to realize this. Ask yourself, is there really such a thing as separation and division, and if so, what is the cause? It’s fairly obvious that as human beings we have divided ourselves in a million ways. We can see the world that has manifested from living in such a way, the poverty, inequality, ongoing wars, and all other social problems. I think for this reason it’s important we each go into it and find out whether division in all its forms can be completely eradicated.
To get at this, just look at how we live as human beings. Are we viewing the present moment without any bias and acting accordingly? Or are we instead viewing the present moment through the lens of our memories? If you watch closely, you’ll see that in each present moment the latter is taking place. Our memories house the structure of thought, the network of words, concepts, and remembrances, that we have been conditioned with from birth. In this respect, our memories have become our filter, our interpretation, of reality. We filter what we perceive through our memories, this instigates a thought process, and we are acting in relation to the finalized thought or idea.
Living this way is mechanical, not at all different from the computer. The computer is limited to performing actions its code permits, and this man-made structure of thought serves as our code. For example, when we see another human being, we have been conditioned to view them through categorizations, conceptualizations, and labels. We see people in terms of how they have behaved in the past; perhaps they adorned us with flattery or did something to hurt us. We have created stereotypes, ethnicities, sexualities, genders, political affiliations, job titles, and so on. And so, we aren’t meeting each other fresh, in the present moment, but rather through the conditioned images we have created of one another.
It isn’t only with human beings, we do this with the entire world. It’s become natural for us to live in this unnatural way. We wake up from start to finish and we’re unaware of the actual world for the entire day. All of our awareness is instead placed into this artificial structure of thought lining our memories. We are overlaying our mental abstraction of the world onto the world. The problem is, our mental abstraction of the world is just that, an abstraction. It bears no resemblance to what exists. Take anything in your memory, any word, theory, concept, label, or image; it is fundamentally meaningless. It only carries the significance, the meaning, that you believe it carries. This network of words and images is nothing but a belief system. If you want you can believe that the word red now means green, or that 2 + 2 = 5.
The point is that our memories interpretation – the words, images, and numbers – can never be an accurate interpretation of what exists. You have to realize that the whole, the present moment, creation, whatever you want to call it, is untouchable by our man-made conditioning. It is beyond descriptions, analyses, explanations, and conceptualizations. Just look at anything around you, any object, perhaps the screen on which you are viewing this. Do you not see that the word ‘screen’ is not the actual object you are looking at? Or perhaps look at the tree outside your window, the word ‘tree’ bears no resemblance to that which is out there rooted in the field. Every single word on this page is ultimately meaningless; they only carry the significance you have applied to them.
It seems I’m stating the obvious, but the word is a signpost, a man-made method of communication, that we use to point toward these things. But it seems we are mistaking the signpost for the actual destination, the fragmentation for the whole. We’ve become attached to, and lost within, this network of words, images, and remembrances. Rather than embrace the whole we are each locking ourselves away in a mental prison of thought. Inwardly we have encased ourselves within walls of man-made conditioning, walls that confine us to a meaningless existence. Is it our inner attachments to such conditioning that divides us from the world? Is this the fundamental root cause of all division in the world? If it is you’ve made quite a stark discovery.
If you are no longer attached to your self-image and all the accumulation of thoughts that surround it – the beliefs, ideologies, and remembrances – what is there to separate you from anything in the universe? You’ve been conditioned to believe that you are little me, that you are ‘Joe Blogs’ from England who works as an office administrator. We filter life through this conditioned structure day after day and act accordingly. In this way we consider it normal, it’s what we know and how we’ve lived from day one. But to me, this is mankind’s greatest mistake. We’ve mistaken ourselves for the content of our memories; we’ve identified with an illusory fragment, and this prevents us from realizing we are truly a part of the whole.
What we are, existence, is staring us in the face all day every day. Creation, the present moment, is forever changing, dynamic, and absolutely unique in every moment. It possesses such immense intelligence, creativity, and love. But we have become attached to and thus placed ourselves within this static box of fragmentary thoughts in our memories. And when you grow attached to something you introduce fear, because you are then afraid to lose that which you are attached to. Not only fear, but any form of suffering – whether it be insecurity, violence, greed, jealousy, envy, desire, hate, or sorrow – is born of this attachment.
The problem is, we’re caught in a trap. Our attachment introduces fear, the fear of losing that which we are attached to. And so, despite this fear being caused by our attachment, we strive to protect that which are attached to. We are protecting the very cause of fear. Not only fear but all forms of division and separation. Living as we are, when you boil it down, the typical human is too afraid to let go of that which divides him from everything in the universe. Then, living in this fearful and divisive state we strive as a species to bring about unity. But we don’t recognize that the ideal of unity is born of the fact that we are inwardly divided. If we weren’t living in this way you wouldn’t need to create an ideal of unity, because you would have never first introduced division. I was listening to a Rumi poem today and he expressed this beautifully: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
I think it was also Rumi who said: “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” All that can delude you as to the contrary is your memory’s interpretation of reality. If you mistake yourself for thought, then this is what you will think you are. But it is just that, it’s merely what you think you are, not what you actually are. You have pieced together all of these fragmentations, these man-made interpretations, and put them together to form a mental abstraction of yourself and the world around you. But all these fragmentations of thought, whatever form they take – numbers, formulas, remembrances, symbols, words, quotes, slogans, ideologies, philosophies, religions, and all branches of knowledge – are ultimately a distortion of what exists.
The contents of your memory are what you know. It is an interpretation of reality in man-made terms, but an interpretation that can never be accurate. We have established what you know cannot touch what actually exists. And so, it is meaningless, whether you accept this or not. This is a fact. The present moment, the whole, cannot be touched by thought. Thought can fragment it in a million ways, but it can never truly capture it. It’s like trying to catch a fish using a net full of holes. As well as this, our attachment to it is the fundamental cause of all forms of suffering. So, the question is, are you mature and brave enough to end it once and for all? Are you willing to plunge yourself into the unknown; to let go of all this garbage and find out what you truly are?
Disregard all of these words, for they mean nothing. Stop attempting to explain the unexplainable. Don’t try to describe the indescribable. Your search for an answer is born of the fact you are confused. The way forward is not to continue seeking answers, but rather to get rid of the source of confusion. It is to clear the barriers, the fragmentations of reality, that have become engrained within each of us. Find out for yourself. Perhaps you already are what you seek. Perhaps you are the truth, the whole of creation, all that has ever existed and can ever exist. Stop pretending to be a piece of the jigsaw when you are the entire picture. If you continue to live mistaking yourself for the jigsaw piece you will never see the beauty of the whole.
I’d like to end this passage with what prompted me to write it in the first place. I was out walking in the countryside and found a nice spot at the bottom of a hill by a flowing stream, just as the sun was setting. As I sat there, I felt the most relaxed I had for months. I pulled out my phone to type in the notes page, because it was as though I had a sudden realization, and typed out “All of creation is one, there is only disharmony when you divide yourself from it. Start from here, and it branches out into everything.” And, to me at least, it rings true. Our natural state of being is that of harmony. It is only when we become attached to the conditioned contents of our memories that disharmony is introduced. And so, our job as human beings, if we want to create a new world, is to clear that which is introducing disharmony, leaving only harmony and order behind.
The Candlelight 
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