From "I" to "We" to "One"

"Wisdom is to recognize that all things are one."

-Heraclitus, 500 BCE

Note: This is a companion to the final installment of my YouTube series Training For Inner Peace.

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Life can close in on us, especially when things don’t go like we hoped or dreamed.

At such times, it’s important to remember that we are part of a greater whole and that relationships are the essence of life, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

When relationships expand, we are reborn. Conversely, when we withdraw into ourselves, life loses meaning.

Everyone at one point or another is faced with difficult circumstances. I’ve wrestled with them for years. The solution requires an awareness that redirects our focus away from pain.

On a long return flight from Shanghai in the early aughts, I began reading a book that I found in the catacombs of one of those used bookstores you can get lost in. The title was Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People, by Evelyn Underhill, first published in 1914.

The title caught my eye because I’m drawn to the so-called mystics. They expose ordinary life at a depth that escapes most of us. Favorites include Meister Eckart, Kahlil Gibran, Ken Wilber, Thich Nhat Hanh and Eckhart Tolle.

Underhill defined a mystic as someone who “Seeks union with reality.”

Don’t we all?

But how do we find union when our world falls apart?

Mystical union is an experience rather than a thought or belief; like love. Underhill’s definition sent me into a new direction. What if life’s purpose is union rather than fulfillment.

I read Underhill’s book about the same time I initiated a Silent Fitness practice of Presence. Presence turned out to be a portal to union by redirecting awarenenss away from Self-centered thoughts.

Troubling thoughts focus on something that's happened or might happen. Meister Eckart (c. 1260-c.1328) cautioned that "Time is what keeps the light from reaching us." When trapped in thought, we miss the precious relational moments of our lives

Redirecting awareness from thought to Presence recentered and awakened me to connectivity I’d previously overlooked.

Mystics claim that the separate Self is an illusion; that in reality, everything is connected. That sounds peculiar, but I agree. Peace comes when we experience ourselves as part of an interconnected whole.

Over years of practice, I slowly came to the realization that circumstances, rather than a violation, are simply life’s flow. Presence directed my attention to a perspective beyond Self, where circumstances no longer carry the same weight. This was essential to restoring peace.

The pull to union is fundamental. We observe it from molecules all the way up to galaxies. Whether acknowledged or not, we too are impacted by this universal force.

According to Emerson, “The riddle of the age for each has a private solution.” 

For me, it feels like a journey from “I” to “We” to “One.”

The practice of Presence takes time. The simple feeling of being is not something we are naturally habituated toward. Escape is an easier out. Nevertheless, each of us hold the handle to the door of our awakening.

If you are struggling with circumstances in your life, check out my YouTube series on Training For Inner Peace, or my newest book, The Secret Within. You might be surprised by what Presence can mean for your life!

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