SOMEWHERE ALONG THIS JOURNEY we have spoken about the need for meditation and its extension into the everyday world. The mystics of the world call for meditating as the cure-all for coming to peace within and without. Actually, for them, it is an inner call to bring them the ability to focus. Life is not meant to be lived in absence of others or events or circumstances. One doesn't learn to truly live and celebrate Life by absenting oneself from Life. Investing time each day escaping from the vagaries of life is good only for those who have yet to find their way to Oneness with all that exists, for All is all that does exist. One must be, and is, in contact with it no matter what they think. One cannot escape the Allness of Life. All simply is All, and thus is everywhere present.

Therefore, when one can bring themselves to immediate and complete presence with another or an activity - particularly if done with a Loving attitude - that presence becomes Oneness. The complete meditative state. One does not have to sit and watch thoughts in order to be meditating. One only has to be fully and lovingly present with whatever it is he or she is doing, which could include sitting or walking meditation, of course. If silent or even walking meditation helps you become more attentive to each moment in all its fullness, it certainly would be beneficial to practice this form. Just don't believe for a moment that this is the only meditative act that is. It is only a step towards the Truth about meditation, and only a minor one at that. It is a minor step only in the fact that it is but a single step towards being able to find the joy and peace in the All of everyday Life. Being focused on anything one does with a Loving attitude is the ultimate in meditative practice. For it brings you into Oneness and all the sacredness that creations of Oneness manifest.

Meditation is all about focus; coming into focus and staying focused on Life as it appears. Living Life moment by moment in all its fullness. This is a supreme form of celebration of Life and brings glory to God's creations and to those who allow these creations to flow through them into the material world. So be a meditator of All, and you and the world benefits from the Loving creations that appear. Each is uplifted in Spirit as the creations bring their Loving energy to the fore. Each is like a ripple that is felt throughout the rest of the universe of creation, for each creation adds to the ultimate storehouse of ideas and thoughts and feelings that are contained in, and accessed through, each heart. Let your heart sing now. Wail, baby, wail!

Meditation is a good thing, as are all creations of God's Being. Many benefit from this penetration into the world of Ideas. Others fathom this same world in yet other ways. One must be careful about seeking the "only way" of doing something... of thinking about any aspect of Life as the only way. There are limitless ways of thinking about Life and all its iterations. After all, every idea contained in all of those capable of thinking for all of eternity is recorded and available to anyone who wants to access them. Are such entities accessed only through meditation as describe by the sages, going within to find My voice in the stillness between thoughts? Do rest and peace come only from that form of meditation? And is the thought that comes from the void of loving presence also not a sacred thought? Is this also not an Idea or Ideal from the Divine? Are not all forms of inspiration from the Divine the same, no matter how or when they come to Light?

God is everywhere and in every thing. All in All. This being so, when one connects with God, is fully in the present with God and God's ideas - no matter where they are found, no matter how they are manifested - one is meditating. It is that connection which provides abundant nourishment to the Living Soul. When one is in full presence with another, or in some creative act like painting, writing, or sculpting, this also is a meditative state. When in Loving presence, one can be only in that space. Because this is so, his or her own voice is silent, and the words or actions that come from mindless activity of the listener are thus divine. Any response that shows its face in that mindless form is rendered in the configuration of a Loving Creation, by whatever name. It is this particular form of meditation that has freed the human mind to allow for divinity to appear.

Therefore, saying that the only way to the benefits of meditation is by bringing oneself to the silence between thoughts while in seated meditation is shortsighted. It seems to me that it is a higher form of meditation which affords one to receive the Golden Gems in the connections with God wherever one finds It. Being in total presence with It, no matter what God's form is in that moment. To do otherwise is like a person who has just broken up a relationship checking into a monastery to work in the silence of meditation on how to create sound relationships. Without others to validate relationship, how can this happen? Life is about finding God and communing with this loving Essence wherever one finds It. Life is about freeing oneself up from the helter-skelter effects of just coping with life, so one can rest in expressing and creating with God always, and not only in the silence of meditating some word or mantra.

Look for God in all, in every thing. Acknowledge God's presence everywhere and know that you and God are One in that entity. In a way, it's like saying, "There I am, in Joe, or in that tree, or in that cloud or in my grandchildren," for that is the Truth. We are all of the One. In the One. As the One. Then simply being in that Oneness, no matter where or in what way you are acknowledging It, is Truth lived with absolute spiritual integrity. When you give yourself totally to someone, this is the loving presence that brings you into the meditative state. This allows for God's gifts to be heard and formed to their fullest degree. That creates loving in its highest form: in relationship. Just remember that all that appears outside of us is but a simple reflection of our relationship with the Divine.

Remember the admonition: "Where two or more are gathered in My name...?" Well, this is what is meant by that sacred phrase. Where two or more of anything is, that is where I AM. It takes two for one to re-cognize the presence of the other. When you re-cognize another in Loving presence, you feel God there. Actually, this is true whenever you are with any other entity. Even with your so-called self, in silent meditation. God is All, in All - and as All. As long as you and God are together - and you recognize that it cannot be any other way - God is present and available to you. As long as you are aware of that Divine connection you reap all the benefits thereof. God is always there. It is we who separate ourselves from God by our thoughts of separation. By our compulsion to look outside ourselves for validation and affirmation. Neither God nor we are "out there." We are "in here," Within, as Holy Scripture tells us in so many powerful ways. And our thoughts really never leave us.

Some say that the purpose of meditation is to separate oneself from the chatter of the mind, although it's really the ego that is to be stilled. As a matter of fact, there is no real thing called the ego, no more than there is a thing called the devil. Both are illusionary creations of the human thought process. The ego was created by humankind to cope with life, to help people succeed in their creation of separation from one another, reflecting the self-made separation from God. When one establishes the structure that places themselves as separate from God - and thus from one another and from all of earthly matter - then one must have with that a competitive means for being better than all that other. Or being in control over it, having power over it. In the realm of separation there must be a structure that makes one the winner over others on all fronts. This is the function of the ego.

To be sure, if the ego is given a free hand it will develop to such a high degree that one can be highly successful in the coping realm. But the coping realm is not Real. Only Life is. Merely coping with what life gives us consumes enormous amounts of energy. This is why humankind is so tired most of the time. Why we leave our physical bodies so soon. Why humanity invests so much of its time and energy devouring hallow foods that pump their energy up until they are addicted to such empty sweeteners. But coping, and all that comes with it, is not at all good for genuine nourishment.

Now, consider this. If humans came to realize that living and coping are two separate things - one real and the other only a figment of their imagination - and that they have a choice in which to implement, then humans could truly live in the ways life most naturally provides. Our real nature is spiritual. Have you ever seen one who is fully living as a loving being behaving as the spiritual being he or she was created to be who is fat, or tired, or run down, or running around like a chicken with its head cut off, frazzled, unsatisfied, unfilled, unhappy, disjointed or wondering what his or her purpose in life is? Or being insecure? No, never. This is because they are living as spiritual beings. Not as humans who are merely coping with life.

Joy and peace and satisfaction and security are found in knowing that we are always in God presence, letting divine ideas unfold, coming fully into awareness, until we manifest as the beauty each is. In such a state, you don't then rely on someone else to provide you with security. You come to be in a meditative state with God in each moment of life's offerings and manifest the creations that are inspired by the ideas which formulate in that context. In this sense, then, one is in security. They are secure because security and God are one in the same. Allowing oneself to become totally immersed in Oneness is the most secure thing one can do for her- or himself.

Loving presence in all of life is that: security. So, contrary to the normal use of the word insecurity, being in-security is a good thing. It implies our Oneness, as life just Is. To place oneself outside of this structure is to make oneself insecure, for that is what created the ego in the first place: in order to cope with all those ruptures in the ways of separation, and the resulting disjointed feelings that emanate from that lifestyle.

A real Life example might help. Picture yourself tending to your cut flower garden. There you are, bathing in the early morning sunshine. Serenaded by the loving sounds of chirping birds. And the croaking of the frogs in the next-door neighbor's pond. The tumbling flow of water paddles from the babbling brook nearby. And the leaves of the quaking aspens ruffled by the gentle spring breeze tickle your funny bone. The backs of your hands are brushed lovingly by the leaves of the plants you're tending to. Your nails begin to cake with mud from pulling weeds so the plants can breathe freely and have adequate space within which to multiply. Your mind is totally at rest. Your attention is captured by the presence you feel with the God that resides in all plant life. You notice the brilliant yellows that center the asters. The long, wispy stems that sway the tissue paper-like, brilliant orange poppy blossoms to and fro in the gentle breeze. Even though you have been lovingly fully present in this loving environment for more than an hour, it seems like just seconds. Actually, time has disappeared from your existence, and you feel all alone in this magical world. You feel nourished beyond description by your connection with Mother Earth. You stop for a moment to reflect on what's happening and you suddenly realize that the problem you had this morning with one of your children has vanished into thin air. "It was nothing," you say to yourself, "really nothing," as the warm smile in your heart now beams lovingly across your face.

The stress of coping with your son or daughter vanishes in the moment of total presence with Godliness. Understanding replaces the need for forgiveness. Both for yourself and the other. What had earlier seemed like a problem reveals itself simply as having been a two-sided, ego-voicing of feelings of separation. Having reunited with God in the garden of sacred Oneness, the stress of coping with an act of separation disappears. Illusion is healed once again. Life is renewed. You feel totally in a loving state and transformative revelation rules supreme. A marvelous benefit with this re-membering with Oneness, no matter where you find it, is that when you return to the loved one from whom you separated earlier in the day, both you and he or she are amazingly reconnected. You move beyond separateness into Oneness once again. Life is rendered magical this way.

This same kind of thing can happen no matter what you place yourself next to, as long as you give yourself totally to it. You lose yourself in it, thus finding your Self in the process. Whatever you give away you have in abundance. Giving yourself to something - making that the prime value in your life and dedicating yourself to loving presence with it - makes way for your highest Self. Makes you aware of what that Is - and thus what you Are. Extraneous thinking gets lost in this presentness and you unite with God in whatever it is you are concentrating on, giving yourSelf to. Time and place cease to exist, replaced by the joy and peace of inner harmony. This is meditation in its highest form. And Loving its greatest gift.

So meditate in any way that serves you. Silent meditation is a good way for some, but not all. Walking meditation is another good way, but not for everyone. Others have, in one way or another, gone beyond that to meditating with All, in All, and reap the benefits of that Oneness throughout eternity. Otherwise, one sets him or herself up to think of separating oneself from his or her thoughts. Or the hustle-bustle of life. Or broken relationships. Such actions only perpetuate the subtleties of separation rather than re-cognizing - and Living in - the ultimate power of Oneness in All. With and as All.

The irony is that there is only Oneness. All the rest is an illusion perpetrated and perpetuated to support the ego in implementing its mechanism for coping with separation. It is this illusional creation which is the foundation of ego's existence and that which compels separation's survival, so ego itself can survive. Ego thrives on the imagery of separation and the competitive spirit that underlies separation. That is but the hallow figure of humanity's shadow. Live in the light now. Be enlightened rather than living in the illusion of shadow. Be with God in all of life, engaging in this highest form of meditation. Its rewards are beyond compare.

SPIRIT NOODLES

1. Describe your meditative process if you use one.
2. What meditative processes have you tried? Which seem to resonate best for you?
3. Ponder the treatise exercised in this piece that suggests that meditative activity in the context of everyday life is the deepest form, and balance it with your experience.
4. Can differing forms of meditation be a proper form depending on what the intention of meditation is for you in a given moment? Explain.
5. Experiment with several means of meditating and see which seems to fit you best at this point in your life, or for the particular purpose you have in mind. Discern which seems to fit best and explain why this is so.
6. If you have a particular problem or issue that is troubling you, go within and ask a question about it and listen for the answer. Another time, merely go within and wait for an answer to an unasked question, understanding that God already knows what you want to ask. Where and how did the answer show its face in either case?

© Jim Young, 2006

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jim Young, who exercised an early retirement option to pursue his art and spiritual interests, is a published, award-winning writer, poet and documentary/fine art photographer who has received grants and gifts for support of his art, some of which is found in institutional and private collections nationally. His photographic images are exhibited widely throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. Young is a graduate of the ecumenical School for Spiritual Directors at the Pecos Benedictine Monastery (NM), and served as the monastery’s first lay director of public relations and fund-raising, where he initiated an extensive religious arts program. Basically a metaphysician who labels himself as an orthodox eclectic, he also has availed himself of numerous holistic healing intensive programs and is a Reiki, Christian Science and Holographic Repatterning practitioner in addition to serving as a spiritual director. The author of a dozen spiritual manuscripts, he is a lifetime student of spirituality and its implications for reframing life’s journey, especially from one of separation and the pain separation engenders, to one of Oneness, and the inner joy and peace that infills from this perspective. Dr. Young is a gifted inspirational speaker who often uses life’s parables to convey spiritual meaning, and inspires others to look within for the Truth that can transcend the superficial.

Jim has just published three books in a new "My Spiritual Awareness" series: The Creation Spirit; A Labor of Love; and Keys to the Door of Truth. All are available through his personal website, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite bookstore. Visit him online at http://creationspirit.net, or email him at dimitrios@creationspirit.net.