"If we look deeply into the nature of reality, we will see that nothing is created or lost."
- Thich Naht Hahn
Through our conditioned eyes, it looks like there are beginnings and endings, birth and death; existence and then non-existence. It looks like we are separate, with finite starting and stopping.
What if that is an illusion? How might freedom be expressed through understanding that we inter-are with all that is?
The Inter-areness of Life
Take the sunflower is this picture, for example. I see the long, delicate yellow petals on the outside, the tiny disk flowers on the inside. If this flower is cut and I place it in a vase on my kitchen table, soon I will notice fine, yellow pollen drifting down. After a few days, the petals droop, the stem collapses under the weight of the flower head, and my table is covered in pollen. I throw the sunflower away and it is gone.
If we take a step back and really consider the nature of reality, we are able to notice the more subtle truth to life.
The sunflower didn't just suddenly appear one day, out of thin air. It did not come from nothing. The conditions were sufficient for it to manifest in this form...The conditions of the seed, the soil, the sun. Of water from the rain, or a gardener's hose. Backing up further, we can notice the bee pollinating the flower and know that there was a flower before this one, that was pollinated by a bee and produced a contribution to this sunflower expressing in this way, at this time. And that flower may well have wilted, drooped and collapsed under the weight of the flower head.
Falling down to the soil, with the conditions of temperature, sun, moisture, and other plant and animal life, the flower transformed into bits of matter that were broken down and broken down and broken down into the soil to participated in nourishing the new seed to open and be expressed. Without the sun, there would be no sunflower expression. Without the bee, there would be no sunflower expression. The sunflower is not separate from the sun and the bee. They inter-are.
There is no birth, no death. There is no finite beginning or ending. There is no existence or non-existence.
Nothing is created that wasn't already part of the suchness of life. There is just this suchness.
You and I are as this sunflower; we inter-are with all of what is.
It looks like we are separate. It looks like we have finite beginnings and endings, but this is not the true nature of life.
Hold this notion tenderly. If there is freedom in it for you, embrace it, breathe it in. Then exhale what you don't need (and that will continue to inter-be as well!)
Sending you so much love and light for the journey. Love, Rachel
Rachel Sartori is an Embodiment and Wholeness Coach. She is kick-ass and heart-centered whether she is showing up as a workshop/retreat facilitator, a private coach, a writer or a speaker. Rachel invites you to exercise your soul, and participate in the healing of your own heart and the world around you. With Rachel, all is welcome, all the time.
Read: Exercise Your Soul: Ignite Healing and Wholeness in your Life and Live from the Inside Out
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