04 Dec Why Are We So Alone, While Also So Connected?
First, a Happy Belated (U.S.) Thanksgiving! Next, a reminder that there are still openings in the P4 Yearlong Program cohort for 2020. There is also an online- only cohort taking shape this year as well. To learn more:
https://cushnir.com/p4-program.
Now, onto the subject at hand. I hope your journey through this message is unusual, provocative, and in full service of your awakening.
In Spirit and Connection,
Raphael
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Why Are We So Alone,While Also So Connected?
“We’re all one.”
“There is no separation.”
I’ve read and heard these statements countless times. I’ve shared them just as many.
Yet, recently I had an experience that challenged my understanding and helped me grow into a deeper recognition of how Spirit works.
My experience actually began about 25 years ago, when I wrote a screenplay with a very unique plot. The screenplay got some significant attention, but it didn’t sell. A film version of my story was just not meant to be.
Then, a few weeks ago, a new film debuted on Netflix with almost the exact same story.
My first instinctual reaction felt like a punch in the gut. Ouch!
My next reaction, equally reactive, was that I’d been ripped off!
Calming down a bit after surfing the bodily sensations of my upset, I soon remembered that “Ideas are in the air,” and that often similar storylines are pursued by many creators.
While that sure seems true, it still didn’t completely quell my discomfort. So I sat with it more.
Meditating on my situation brought to mind some of the current superhero shows I watch with my daughter in which it’s common knowledge that we live in a “multiverse,” and that everyone has different but parallel lives in alternate realities. It occurred to me that on “Earth 16,” perhaps, my own screenplay was the one that just got produced and released.
Or better yet, I imagined, on “Earth 37” my screenplay was produced decades ago and in the interim I had become a fabulously successful filmmaker with a luminous career. I pictured myself, in a moment’s reverie, as something like Raphael Scorcese.
Then that reverie faded, and I was thrust back into this particular reality, on plain old Earth 1, in which no version of the above transpired, and I felt another punch to the gut. Suddenly I was all alone with a sense of longing and loss.
But am I really alone? Well, my ego tells me so. My powers of observation do, too, identifying me as a distinct organism that lives and dies all on its own. To thrive in my surrrounding environment, it seems, I must tend consistently to the separate “skin bag” I move around in.
Zooming in, though, I can see that my human life form is made up of trillions of equally living cells, each distinct in their own way. These cells come to life within me constantly, as long as I’m alive to host them.
Zooming out, I can also see that my seemingly separate existence is inseparable from a larger living system here on earth. Without that environment functioning in relative good health, I’m toast.
There’s simply no going it alone when it comes to existence. Everything that exists is made up of smaller constituent parts, while at the same time operating as a similar smaller part in an existence larger than itself.
“Horton Hears A Who,” indeed. Or put another way: Russian nesting dolls all around, forever.
But what does this rendering of how existence manifests have to do with my screenplay? Well, one key thing about our infinitely leveled and interconnected existence is that it’s always changing. And as far as we can tell that change is of an evolving kind. In the earthly realm, at least, it tends toward greater complexity and wholeness. Of course with that greater complexity comes the human potential to destroy ourselves, but let’s leave that imminent peril for another time.
The second key thing about our evolving existence is that even when healthily hurling forward it still relies on what is often called “creative destruction.” For there to be winners in evolution, there have to be losers.
For every hearty bug that soars through the sky toward successful procreation, there must be thousands more that go splat on a windshield. Those windshield bugs are necessary, essential even. They create the odds for survival that allow the winning bug to fulfill not just its own destiny, but also that of the whole species.
If I misperceive myself as separate from the overall “project” of existence, then the fact that my screenplay never got produced is a letdown, a failure, or perhaps even a personal tragedy. If, on the other hand, I more accurately perceive myself to be just like every other windshield bug, then I know for certain that I played an instrumental part in my story’s birth into filmed form.
Does the hearty bug that is Netflix know about my humble heroics? Does anyone? Does that even matter?
Instead of bemoaning my fate, whatever fate, I can choose to recognize it as a vital part of ever-evolving creation.
If the bug metaphor is not so palatable for you, perhaps my point is even better made by apples. Think of how many apples must fall, and how many seeds must go unsprouted, for just one new tree to take root. Without the abundance of seeds, spread across every kind of terrain, there would be no way the mature tree could find the most hospitable spot for its offspring.
Even though apples may provide a more appealing metaphor than bugs, this way of viewing things might still seem off-putting. It goes completely against the Western ethos of rugged individualism, and the New Age idea that everyone can have it all if we just learn how to use our minds to “manifest” our heart’s desire.
To be sure, I’m a great fan of seeking a hundred percent of what we want. I fully recognize our mighty capacity for achievement and self-realization. However, our true “pearl beyond price” is the ability to be content, peaceful, grateful and fully engaged with life no matter what happens.
With that ability, nothing is ever wrong or missing, inside us or outside us. Better yet, this same ability actually allows us to become the best change agents in regard to any personal, social, or environmental issues that call us to action.
The point is, you are not only valuable to the ever-evolving expression of existence – you’re instrumental.
You’re successfully serving your purpose no matter how many of your dreams come true. Is that even just a little affirming, even if in a surprising way? Does it allow you to exhale a bit more fully?
One last thing: I began this message referring to how Spirit actually works. Now it’s time to sketch that in, too. What I’ve come to believe, from my own experience, is that Spirit is what we’re made of. It’s the formlessness out of which we emerge, the form we come to take, and the great mystery that binds us all.
Spirit is eternal, infinite, yet it recreates itself anew in every single moment. Spirit, therefore, evolves right along with us.
The more fully we experience each moment, the more we know ourselves as Spirit. And the more we know ourselves as Spirit, the better able we are to thrive as unique individuals.
It’s the ultimate paradox. We are alone in the stream of our subjective existence, yet utterly indivisible, at our essence, from every other aspect of existence.
A life truly well-lived is steeped in that ultimate paradox. It’s resonant with meaning, imbued with beauty, shimmering with love, no matter what part we play in the play.
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