we are floating foam
on a sea of silent consciousness-
our origin, our home.

AM I GOD?

R: Be still and know that I am God.
SL: Robert for me it seems like there’s something very scary about that whole prospect or feeling and thinking that I am God.

R: No, I am is your ego you’re referring to. Your personal individual I am, is not God. But I-Am is God. See the difference? You are not God the way you appear to be, but your real Self is God. So when you say, “I am God,” you are not referring to yourself as a body. You’re speaking to the real you, which you can’t see as you. Do you see? (From Robert Adams – The collected works)
*************
INFERENCE – I am God, not in a grand, royal way, but whatever is real in me is God.
It’s as much as a pot saying, “I am clay,”
or
an earring saying, “I am gold,”
or
a chair saying,”I am wood,”
or
an oceanic wave saying, “I am water.”

don’t grieve, my child
for you were never born
and death cannot take you.
your body
does not contain you.
your mind
cannot define you.
you are the source of all.
within you, both space and time arise.
you are the eternal now—
the source of all existence.
you are the dream divine.

There is a Zen koan that says: “Show me your original face before you were born.” The notion underneath this koan is to ask us to stretch – in a way that allows us to access our True, Real and Authentic Self – the self we are/were before we were born. In this process, we transcend our “database” of thoughts, concepts, beliefs, etc., and move to a place of no-mind – where we can experience Reality as it truly is, experience our self as we truly are. Our true face before we were born is actually who we were (and still are!) before we were shaped and crafted by our “life experience.”

In the process of reflecting on the koan, we can begin to see how we’ve become addicted to “my reality,” – my beliefs, assumptions, theories, perceptions, perspectives, etc. Deep reflection can also support us to flow in a space of no-mind, an “original space” of mental quietude, unencumbered and not jerked around by our thoughts and thought patterns.

mirror above, mirror below
you show my face, I reflect your soul
arising, unexpected laughter.
what curious game of hide and seek
is this we play?

Meditation brings the realization that our innermost thoughts, habits and tendencies, ultimately create our reality. If we live life unconsciously, we lose sight of our true potential and can fall victim to our own careless thoughts. But this realization brings a new awareness; we start paying attention to the kind of thoughts we nurture, and to the thoughts we want to pluck before they grow roots. Reality is always our mirror.