The poet John Donne said that no one is an island, but I wonder. The funny thing about islands is that there is more to them than meets the eye. If we look at them jutting up out of the ocean, it is easy to think that they are all separate from one another. But if we look beneath the surface, we find that each island is the tip of a great mountain. And if we look deeper still, we see that they are all connected – all islands are a part of One Earth.

If someone looks at you, and sees only your physical body, barely remembering your name, they might easily make the same mistake, and assume that there’s not much more to know. But you know that your body harbors a unique being, you, with mountains of memories, and dreams and talents and layers of thoughts and feelings. And that deep within you lies the intuitive knowledge of your own existence; your inner “I” feeling.

This sense of existence awoke in you within your mother’s womb, and has remained with you ever since as an awareness that stitches each instant of your life to the next like a golden thread running through time.

Just as consciousness lends our lives coherence, connecting one moment to the next, so too it links us to one another. Our bodies and minds are separate but like the Earth from which all islands spring, consciousness is one. My mind and your mind reflect awareness, but none of us owns it, any more than we own the sunlight. Awareness arises from a common source. I suppose it must be a kind of Socialist Awareness; what Carl Jung (no, not Karl Marx) called the Collective Unconscious.

As our minds evolve, we come to feel in our hearts that we are all connected, like rivers and stars and trees. As we begin to truly know ourselves we sense a Oneness and universal love awakens.

5 Comments

  1. Gyan on July 19, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    Correctly said, our physical body harbors a unique being, ‘I’, my own existence, my own spiritual body of the same size as of physical body. It is why there is“ I” feeling in the physical body.

  2. Francesca on July 19, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    Dada,

    I liked them both. A combination of the two would be great for your talk. The love we need starts with ourselves and the knowledge that we are connected with everything. Love is the link, indeed, but also we need to learn to love and accept ourselves as we are, part and parcel of the great creation. Personifying love from the standpoint of Supreme Consciousness takes away the effort of creating “love” . Acknowledging our existence is indispensable.

  3. steve on July 19, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    Dadaji,
    I’m leaning more towards the expression you are talking about in the Islands piece.
    Maybe expand on the idea of consciousness, both individual & collective, for a more in depth look at this idea. How does meditation connect us to these two facets? Will sadhana help us to see past our limited ego and connect with our “true self?”
    Best wishes.

  4. suniita on July 19, 2013 at 11:56 pm

    Namaskar, Dada

    this one is my choice also. so many many people talk about love these days, in webinars, and teleseminars and conferences, as you know… i think the content on this one is fresher. r u going to sing ‘tiny green island’? also mayb u could include the short exercise of closing eyes and ‘who r u..ru your body, no bec something in u is seeing yr body, ..same for ru yr thoughts? ru your feelings? something deeper thats within all of us. this is to show that just bec its unseen doesnt mean it doesnt exist. Like the wind. a thought: maybe dr emoto’s work would loop in for one of the points ur trying to make. also …probly not, but maybe u could write a simple song about it and sing it. Baba Nam Kevalam

  5. Pashupati on July 20, 2013 at 12:13 am

    I suggest sticking to Love as the topic. You’re more immersed in it and did a good job at the retreat.

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