We have spent so many years and so much energy trying to find something special that truly satisfies. It is a useless journey! We forget no person and no-thing is special. Give it up and turn another way, inward to the Voice within which tells us, “It is not here in time and space but beyond in the Eternal Now.”

Yet daily we are bombarded with food, toys, places to go, new pills, and yet another religious structure that promises to give us lasting satisfaction and peace. So often, like puppets on strings, we dance away to try the latest, with an almost unconscious realization it will do nothing more than just help pass the time away. And at times we act out with an unconscious rage at life, at things, at people, because they just do not satisfy.

In the early Christian scriptures, it portrays Jesus being followed by some very accomplished people, scribes and lawyers. Once, one of them asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of all?” It was like asking, “What do I have to really do to be happy and find peace? Where can I find satisfaction?” Jesus replied saying, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31, RSV)

Jesus taught God is One; to Israel, to all the nations and peoples of the world. This oneness is Spirit, not divided up into millions of people, nations, religions, and things. He demonstrated this by the way he lived and loved all people equally, especially those thought to be inferior or outside the clan. There was and is no nation or people God loves more than another. If God is everywhere, and this means in all people and places, then no one or no-thing is more special than another. Thus Jesus concluded the answer by saying the second part; loving God the Spirit foremost is to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

How we love then a neighbor, or any man, woman, or child, is a reflection on how we love ourselves. If we think we are special, and we all do until we begin to awaken, then the natural reaction is to judge others as inferior, less qualified, not as good, etc. etc. The basis of all isms is rooted in the idea of specialness. And it is the root for a life of chasing illusions which can never satisfy.

The Course of Miracles, lesson 86, says “It is senseless for me to search wildly about for salvation. I have seen it in many people and in many things, but when I reached for it, it was not there. I was mistaken about where it is. I was mistaken about what it is. I will undertake no more idle seeking. Only God’s plan for salvation will work. And I will rejoice because His (God’s) plan can never fail.”

Living in our identifiable bodies, this is such a hard lesson to learn, but awakening to it is the secret to such peace and freedom. The awakening can and will be frightening at times. We will feel a bit crazy, perhaps threatened, ostracized, and in many case, danger of expulsion. Yet in our giving up the idea that any person, nation, or religion is special, will open one’s mind and eyes to a world of eternal wonderful and joy.

Do I then take pills, care for my body, go to enjoyable places, marry, have children, save money, play golf?  Oh yes, but we learn to not take them so seriously, to keep awareness in mind.  “Before enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.  After enlightenment, I chopped wood and carried water.  (But I no longer took them so seriously!)”

Remember, we are not our bodies. Bodies are so small, limited, and mortal. To be stuck in ours or to another’s is to create deep anxiety and unending sorrow and fear. Let them go, and awaken to the Universal Spirit who connects us all, beyond time, space, and limitations, into the God as One. Hear this! 

We can practice this daily remembering in taking some time to “Be still and know God.”  In silence, the mind experiences a cleansing action, a soul scrubbing.  Just sit down in a chair, in a room or place by yourself, and “go home.”  Sit and repeat a word, or the word “home” for 15 or 20 minutes.  Take a slow walk and do the same.  And before long, you will “get it” and begin to awaken, and realize the Oneness of which you and I are all within.  It will be wonderful!