April 29, 2014

• Every human being is part of God

• Any separation is a mirage

God and your guides are filled with nurturing love. The love that you know of from your guides is only a part of what joins you together, for the love of God is really the love of each of you. We often affirm that every human being is part of the sacred entity that you refer to as God. Every individual belongs to that reality, that entity of God. So the nurturing which is offered by God is actually the nurturing offered by others. When you reach out in support of another, you are a part of the presence that is known and identified as God.

Too often human beings think of God as some higher power that is in some way separate from your own lives. The history of most traditional religions is rife with the assertion that there is a gulf that exists between God and human life, and that somehow through supplication that gulf can be bridged. For some, that concept of human life, vis-à-vis God, carries meaning that directs and comforts and gives purpose to the experience of human life. But the truth that applies to all is that there is no divide. There is no gulf. There is no wall. There is no barrier that provides a separation between your experiences as human beings and the reality that is identified as God.

Many religions include a figure or figures that are essential to connecting one form of life, human life, with another form of life, God. In reality, each of you is the bridge. Each of you is the connection. You are the connection between your neighbor and God, for you are as much a part of being God as anyone. Your neighbor is an equal part of being God. The two of you become the bridge that is a part of God. A bridge has a start and a finish, but it is still the bridge. Human life is filled with starts and finishes. It is filled with beginnings and endings, but those points all belong to the entity of that bridge, and therefore what that bridge connects with at either end belongs to the total reality of the entire connection. Human life, God’s presence—they’re all the same. That separation doesn’t exist. What connects human life with God is the totality of all, the unity of all.

Your lives in many ways are about making those connections, making the bridge, so to speak, by acknowledging that all is connected. The bridge is the affirmation that all are the same. Walls attempt to separate, attempt to differentiate one entity from another. But even that wall is shared by both entities, and therefore belongs to both entities, and therefore is both entities.

The shore of a lake is clearly connected to the opposite shore. The lake may seem a barrier. It may also seem a kind of bridge, but what touches one shore touches another, and the shores are easily united. What is under the surface is continuous but not visible. Remove the water, and the land is a single entity. That entity, that singleness, that unity, is not changed by the water in the lake. It is merely disguised.

So it is with differences that you may sense with others. Those differences are merely disguising properties that have no effect on the reality that there is actually no division, no separation, no gulf. If two people put a piece of cardboard between their outstretched palms, there is an uninterrupted connection between both people, and therefore there is no real difference, no real separation.

It is for each of you, as it is for all people, to find ways of perceiving or feeling connections. You are indeed connected to the perfect stranger, just as you are connected to your closest family or friends. This connection that binds all into one is the connection that keeps human life as an integral part of the totality of God.

We speak of no break between God and you, but that is not just a figurative remark. It is an absolute truth. Sometimes you sense a glimpse of God’s presence. It may be an incredible sense of peace or inspiration, but each of you has experienced that sense of connection.

How can anyone perceive a relationship with God that is unique and that is somehow exclusive, for there is no relationship that has that exclusivity with God. The feelings you have when you experience God are not unknown to the perfect stranger. That experience of God is not just a momentary connection when God reaches out to you or when you reach out to God. You are merely recognizing what is always there, and if you also recognize that that connection is the same with every human being, it becomes impossible to feel in any way special or unique from others, privileged, or in some way entitled. Those are merely temporary barriers that serve to separate what cannot be separated. We emphasize “cannot be separated.” It is not “should not.” It is impossible to be separated.

You reach to others with compassion because that is the natural response to the self, for the self and the other are the same. You have concerns about self, but that is no different than concerns about the other, for the other is the same as the self. That Golden Rule that all know has a nugget of pure truth, for the others are merely a slightly varied extension of the self. Your neighbor is merely a different manifestation of you. Equally, you are simply a different manifestation of your neighbor. You cannot be critical of that neighbor without being equally critical of the self. In loving a neighbor, you love yourself. In being an expression of love, you are reflecting an expression of love from another. One is merely a mirror image of another, but the reality is the same.

You often pray for peace—peace in the world—and we say to you that peace in the world means first peace within, for there is no separation between what is inside you and what is outside you, the quote, world. Perhaps the most difficult lesson for human beings is an acknowledgment that any separation is a mirage, that whatever is seen as a separation is merely the result of a restricted vision. You cannot see all that is. You cannot know all that is. But each of you has faith in what is not seen and still can know of its truth.

When you stand on the shore and look out to the ocean, think not of the distance of separation but the unity that exists. Remove the ocean, and that unity is more visible. You are not only what you feel, but you are what you observe. As your vision is expanded, you become more fulfilled. When that vision is withdrawn and limited by prejudice, by suspicion, you become more limited.

You grow, therefore, as your vision grows. You become empowered in love as your vision of love expands. You become more peaceful as your vision of what peace means expands. Allow that vision to be all-encompassing. Allow no judgment to restrict what is seen with the heart, for the heart is the true eye of the spirit. You love because you know. You love because that knowledge is reinforced by faith. You love because you have experienced love. You become more godly because you have seen godliness with your heart.

Open that heart, open your spiritual vision, and let the light that is there shine through and affirm that all are a part of the God to whom you pray. Your relationship with God is your relationship with all. Embrace all, and you will find the illumination from God that you seek.

Amen.