This Week’s Quotation:
All of creation is like that. It is not just something. It is someone. The animals, rocks, trees, and stars are alive. They are Universal Being embodied in living form. That is why creation is so beautiful and so precious. All that has come to you has been a gift of Universal Being given to you now in this present moment. That awareness is the difference between being dead inside and being truly alive.
Becoming a Sun p. 137
Being Truly Alive
Author, Becoming a Sun
This week I heard some fascinating comments from the British biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake. He says that prior to the 17th century, world culture understood our planet and the universe itself to be not only alive but full of intelligences and divine presence. Not having heard Rupert’s ideas on this before, I was delighted to hear something so close to what I had come to myself.
Modern science! It has brought us so many advances, and it has improved the quality of life in so many ways, at least in an outer sense. But at what cost to the human soul?
I believe that how we treat other people is how we treat ourselves. And how we see other people and the world is how we see ourselves. If that is true, what is the cost to our human souls if we see the universe as essentially mechanistic—a manifestation of energy and matter? How would we not see ourselves that way too?
Do you think it is possible that this worldview deadens the soul of the modern man or woman? That we now think of ourselves as lacking innate intelligence or divine presence?
I know that this involves a significant generalization of the human experience. And it involves a cultural development over hundreds of years that none of us were there to observe. But we are firsthand witnesses to our own human experience. And we could experiment with seeing other people and the world around us as full of intelligences and divine presence.
Let’s try that and see what happens.
What does it mean to become a sun?
Every human being is already a sun on the inside—a being of intense love and light. The difference is that some people have the vision and courage to become a sun on the outside. This difference is our human destiny.
8 Responses
Thank you David – being truly alive is our greatest goal….
Thanks, David, I have been watching information on transhumanism and the implications of this technology. Is this the next form of human? As you said, what price do we pay if we see the universe as essentially mechanistic? I believe that more than ever now we must reconnect with each other, heart to heart, and soul to soul if we are to guide the future in a way that will hold our deepest values and connection with Source in tact.
It seems obvious to me that everything springs from the same source. I don’t recall when I first became aware of this, but becoming aware of it changed my whole perspective of … EVERYTHING. When I see everything–large, small, inert, animated–and every living creature, including human beings, as imbued with Divinity, how can I fail to be awed with adoration. In my view, one cannot truly love God without loving all of creation in all of its vastness, variety, magnificence and beauty. I tell you this: to know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to be truly alive. Thank you, David, for bringing this to the forefront of my consciousness.
This poem by Joseph Mary Plunkett gave me an insight to see and feel what you’re describing David and Ron
and others too
“I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes
His body gleams amidst eternal snows
His tears fall from the skies
I see his face in every flower
And thunder and the singing of the birds are but his voice
And carven by his power
Rocks are his written words
All pathways by his feet are worn
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea
His crown of thorns is crowned with every thorn
His cross is every tree”.
This moving poem came from an Irish patriot who at 29 years old was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising to free Ireland from British rule.
I thank God for our Indigenous sisters & brothers who have kept the living earth alive in our souls, alive in the world consciousness; so that once again it can be recognized by humanity. Divine presence recognized within one and all. David thank you for doing your part. Your light shines bright.
What a stunning photo too !
Loved your consideration and eager to become even more alive to all the intelligences and the fullness of the divine expressing through the people right close where I live.
Thank you for your inspirational writings 🙏
I love the invitation to see others “as full of intelligences and divine presence”. I have been living my life that way to the best of my ability, correcting my attitude when I noticed that I was not. We are indeed blessed to know this experience and then it just is so. I am deeply thankful for fellow “wayfarers”. Blessings, Nadeja
I think this hits the nail on the head. Either all things are miraculous – full of intelligences and divine presence – or nothing is. To claim that the universe is mechanistic is human arrogance, and, more to the point, is unhealthy.