One Essence, Much Diversity
Essence, the word, is in the air. I see online and hear it out of the mouth of friends, and speak it myself.
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary essence is: “the basic or most important idea or quality of something”. I agree. Nothing is before essence. Essence is about getting to the root. Essence is the naked truth; the naked mind; the naked body.
I want to talk naked truth here.
Diversity is a big word, also, these days. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary diversity is: “the fact of many different types of things or people being included in something; a range of different things or people”.
I like how the words essence and diversity go together to tell the story of all things alive; alive as trees, alive as humans, the sky, the clouds, the rocks. all that is alive. How and where their life came from is the question so often replied to and answered by some version of biology on a grand scale.
Biology is a profound science that dissects the overwhelmingly immense spectrum of life on this Earth. it’s just that this answer of biology then begs the question of, how did biology come into existence?
These are the kind of questions that I muse on, and here’s an answer I have come up with. I am now certain that, as far as I can tell, God is essence. What I mean is that I imagine a great invisible power exists, the likes of infinity. Whatever “it” is, that which we touch, taste, smell or feel, are its myriad expressions. I can no longer subscribe to the Christian religion’s unspoken projection of an anthropomorphic male Sky-God as real and solid as a ceramic bowl. Him, the creator and we, et. al., the created. Nope, don’t buy it.
That said, my love for the historically illumined Jesus and my conviction in and direct experience of in a supreme something remains deeply rooted. So maybe then God is a spark in all life forms? I thought so for a while but, no. I was blind, but now I see, as in the song, Amazing Grace, with a clear recognition that a beneficent source graciously lives also as all things simultaneously; seemingly empty, but at the same time, also all-pervading.
Amazing Grace
What we human beings do with this gift of life is up to us. When we seek God, we actually seek our Self. Might God be as the invisible, eternal, unprejudiced, clear essence from which all, without exception, unfolds, is based in an uncontaminated love, and is not separate from all things physical, including us? Yes, my search has ended with what is already true.
From the astronomically huge to the infinitesimal microscopic, a diversity of people, places and things share the one and same space of Grace; that is when essence is common to the living equation, harmony can prevail. What I mean is that when the diversity of life and essence are understood as integrated and inseparable, the possibility for genuine peace within ourselves, within our relations and for humanity as a whole, is easier to imagine.
Why? Essence is the only actual equal-opportunity ’employer’– just joking. Essence is the only thing that is not a thing, that is free, pure in spirit and available to virtually everyone. Seriously though, the recognition and appreciation of essence as magnificently prior to all religions beliefs and beliefs in general, has the innate power to change everything.
Without recognition of this common denominator of essence as who we each are and where we meet, then IMO, life can only be about that which divides us into the many categories of superior or inferior – the big lie that all wars are based on- personal, social and national.
By my awareness of just how amazing life itself is, and that I and thou, ARE it, that is what makes the possibilities of life truly humbling. Taking a moment to consider that natural essence is who you really are beneath any and all social identities changes lives as it has mine, and at no cost and with no middlemen. Something much larger than my petty thoughts and ideas is afoot.
The great discovery is that all there is to discover is that we have missed the proverbial ‘nose on our face’ because no one told us that disregarding or being disconnected from our original gift of life, of essence, leads humans away from original happiness, our natural capacities, skills, generosity and desire to make life better. No priest or expert is needed to sense the depth of what we actually ARE, and there is no way to find or lose what already is true.
The personal recognition that all humans, animals, vegetables and minerals are made of exactly the same stuff is the beginning of the end of self-centered, knee-jerk responses to life; that is because it finally dawns on us that the pain and hurt we may inflict is the stupid act of hurting ourselves. Join me in cultivating wholly positive, beneficial intent; I pro-actively practice this with myself, my family and friends. It truly is contagious! It’s so simple.
