One of the most popular plays… in the universe… is, “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, first performed in 1938. Perhaps you’ve seen it, or maybe you were in a production at school.
At the end of Act One there’s a scene between a brother and a sister. Rebecca says to her brother George…
“I never told you about the letter Jane Crofut got from her minister when she was sick. He wrote Jane a letter and on the envelope the address was like this: It said: Jane Crofut; The Crofut Farm; Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America.”
“What’s funny about that?” asks George.
Rebecca continues…
“But listen, it’s not finished: the United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; the Universe; the Mind of God——that’s what it said on the envelope.”
“What do you know!” says George.
“And the postman brought it just the same,” says Rebecca.
“What do you know,” says George.
…
So many of life’s problems are caused by our own insistence that our lives are small, that we are separate beings, bumping into other separate beings, like billiard balls in the grand cosmic felt.
This is ego, of course, doing its job, attempting to keep us safe, the only way it knows how: by constructing walls around us, laser-focusing on only the most immediate threats, and avoiding pain, or more rightly, the ever anticipated perception of pain at all costs.
The ego prefers that we exist in what the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham called the, “queer divine dissatisfaction” of the present moment.
And to be sure, artists of all stripes, from the painter to the mathematician, may thrive in this “divine” space, this space of ego and separation and longing.
As the novelist, Zadie Smith wrote, “Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied.”
Since the muscle for recognizing and rising above ego can take a lifetime to develop, if it develops at all, we will all, on this earth plane, live the majority of our lives in ego, alone, and separated from the source of all life, children to a distant, unreachable god.
Or, at least, this is one perspective.
Acceptance of ego, and a fervent practice of embracing the present moment, is the best we can strive for. To be still, to become quiet and breathe and meditate on the present moment, as you’re doing now, is part of this practice. And perhaps, over time, some of the presence you feel here will carry over into the everyday events of cooking and cleaning and paying your bills and walking the dog. And if you are relentless in these pursuits, the whole of your life, and all the activities contained therein, can be lived, as Thoreau put it, “deliberately.” You can then live in the present moment, every moment, for the rest of your days in this physical realm. And in doing so, you can tap into what is true and eternal and good on this earth.
We cannot hope for more than that. And we must content ourselves with the peace that comes from years of hard work and effort and vigilance to the here and now. What more could we possibly do?
As the old proverb goes, “better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t.”
Well…
We…
Your otherworld love…
We know the devil is a fiction. A fantasy concocted to frighten little children. A stick to god’s carrot.
So allow us, now, to define the “devil” you do not know, and in doing so, offer an alternate… an additional… a whole other means through which we may commune with the eternal in our day to day.
It is through an awareness of, and an appreciation for, the mind of god, the great cosmic brain, of which we are a vital part. We are thought in manifest form. We are the crackling electricity of a firing neuron in the august universal brain.
Our awareness, our consciousness, is how the universe comes to know itself. For we are the universe and it is us. And just as different parts of our brains are responsible for different aspect of our existence, we are that within the mind of God that is responsible for the fiery embers of universal consciousness - glowing sparks, born from the death of stars.
We are a light in the forest of the cosmos.
This meditation, then, is not meant to admonish you to remain steadfast in spiritual pursuits, but rather, simply, to remind you that you are already spiritual by your very nature. You are already connected, and grand, and eternal. And you cannot achieve what you already are.
Of course, the ego loves a spiritual mindset. One of the ego’s proudest inventions is the notion of, “holier than thou.”
But the ego cannot thrive in eternity, for its nature is temporary. Your nature… is eternal. And the ego cannot flourish in connectedness, for its worth is measured in the singular. And you, as Whitman said, “contain multitudes.”
Dear one, live, then, in the eternal as best you can. Be always in this moment. And live in fellowship with nature, of which you are a part - love others, befriend an animal, live, fully: on this earth, in this Solar System, in the Universe, here, in the Mind of God.