If you will read this with the spirit of exploration in which I wrote it, it offers one or perhaps even a lifetime of cosmic laughs. Suspend any disbelief for the moment and let yourself go. You can always pick yourself back up if you choose.

One teacher says, “Give your heart to God”; another says, “You are the one you are looking for”. Others say to go do good deeds, to meditate, to make offerings, or practice compassion.  I have been looking at the messages of this generation’s spiritual teachers, wondering and pondering if the teachings they offer are in service to the Truth. As different as they may seem, I trust they are, for they are a part of the Great Unfolding, the Exquisite Expansion of Understanding.

I have often played with the idea of a brain in a bell jar. Do I physically exist or is this all simply the experiences of a brain fed programming, supplied experiences and the accompanying neural stimulations. What would be the point? Well, said she with a broad grin on her face, experience of course. Would it matter if it were true? It doesn’t to me. Long ago, I realized I didn’t care. I just wanted to know the truth, regardless of what it was, so I began my exploration and the process of uncovering everything that was not Truth. All my little truths, all the wants and desire, ideas and concepts were up for grabs. Much of what I held deeply in my heart and body felt like The Truth, but I instinctively knew if it was Truth, it could not be stripped away. Truth would stand.

My query begs a big question. What exactly is Capital T Truth? For me, it is that which is universally true. No … that may not be a big enough Truth, for there may be something beyond the Universe. Surely, the idea of a Universe includes that which surrounds it, holding it up, or better yet, other Universes yet discovered. Where did the Big Bang’s material come from? Who created God? Its turtles all the way down with that sort of questioning. In that school of thought, no one Truth offers an answer. Truth must be beyond duality, beyond the idea of creation and creator, regardless of the dimensionality in which we reside. If there is a here, there is a not here. If there is time, it balances on the turtle’s back with the timeless, right next to space and a spaceless, formless reality.

Even now, settled into the present moment, a fine-tuning takes place. Remnants of not Truth present themselves for examination, hence today’s exploration. I think I will start smaller. I will begin with my reality rather than Ultimate Truth; surely, it’s simpler. What do I know for absolute certain? I am, therefore I exist. There is an am-ness, a sense of being present. I know this as a result of experiencing. Without experience, would there be an ‘I’ to be aware? Perhaps, but that’s an exploration for another time.

What is experiencing? It is the experiencer, that which is experienced, and the experience itself. Can experience take place without one of the three components? No. Even if I close my eyes and block out the physical, what I experience is the inner world, the dream world, thoughts, visions, blackness or color. Still, the mighty trinity of experience-experienced-experiencer, what is oft referred to as Consciousness, is present. Consciousness Is. Is it ‘I’? Since it includes you, cannot function without you, am I you too, regardless of who you are and what you are doing? Do I exist as Consciousness? When I take the time to look, it is Consciousness, not this body-mind, that I call ‘I’. The body-mind appears in Consciousness—Big C. Consciousness doesn’t appear in the body-mind. Consciousness extends infinitely beyond this body. It encompasses stars and solar systems, every being on the planet and in all other dimensions, as well as in dimensions of which I not yet knowingly aware. I have looked and explored, there is nothing outside of Consciousness—nothing. Please don’t trust me. Go look for yourself.

Beyond Consciousness, it gets a little muddy. As soon as I say I am anything—woman, child, mother, spiritually inclined, farmer, writer—good, bad, beautiful, ugly, not enough, simply perfect—I give myself a point of contention and a heartache that splits me into as many tiny pieces as there are ideas about what I am. That is, unless I know with my entire being that I am Consciousness. Then none of it matters at all. It simply adds spice to the game Consciously played, changing the experience of life beyond recognition.

As for the teachings, giving my heart to God, eventually upends belief in a little me long enough for the realization of Big C to populate every cell, every synapse. When I truly grok that I am the One, rather than feeding a power trip which spirals ever deeper into delusion, these cells expand into every corner of the Universe and beyond. If I go do good deeds, the sense of a doer begins to dissolve in the self-less doing. It’s the same with meditation once the idea of someone meditating melts into the trinity of meditation. Offerings and compassion are both, when followed to the ultimate conclusion, self-less service. All teachings lead home.

I think I will stop right here, now. Consciousness is all that is; it is Truth. I am That. The implications will unfold into eternity. Pandora’s Box is open. There is no end to me. I am me, you and the experience of us. That is enough.

I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on this post. Feel free to share.