Seen through the eyes of love, all beings are beautiful, all acts
are dedicated, and the world is one vast family.
—sai baba
Reaping the Harvest:
Recognizing the Divine in All
In the secret garden the seeds planted months and even years ago now grow into huge trees; vineyards fill with sweet grapes ready to harvest; flowers grow abundantly. This beautiful inner landscape is the result of strenuous work both inside by tending thoughts and also in daily activities. Thoughts, words, and actions align to serve, share good energy, and make the world a better place. In the beginning the pieces of oneself are spread out and cut off from each other. Through regular tending and concentrated effort, the different levels of the mind begin to merge into one. Instead of sleeping on a decision to gain insights, the intuitive information comes in readily and easily. The masculine and feminine marry at the altar of the Divine in peaceful unity. It’s time to reap the harvest of a peaceful and harmonious life.
The mind seeks out division between good and evil, love and hate, sacred and profane. It creates an either/or world. But the deeper I dived, the higher I climbed, and the more that I used my heart, the more I realized that this divided view of reality was unreliable. A hawk screeched its piercing cry and dived for a rabbit. If the hawk missed, it might die of hunger. If it succeeded, then the rabbit would die. Did this make the beautiful red-shouldered hawk evil to kill its prey? I felt perplexed. I may not need meat for lunch, but the hawk’s nature requires it to eat meat to survive. In my limited view, I judged. But what a useless waste of energy! I could no more judge the rightness of a hawk’s kill than of my neighbor’s purchase of a Range Rover. While eating rabbits and buying a Rover wouldn’t be right for me, who could see all of the reasons and events that led to the action for another? Who could know the depth of it and all of the cause and effect that went before?
Late into nights, I pondered over duality and the nature of life. If there were no darkness, we could not know light. Without pain and anxiety, we would not know the nature of peace. Without sadness it’s impossible to know the existence of happiness. Without hate, how could we recognize love? Through the opposites, we become conscious of the multifaceted nature of life. Beauty lies in contrast. Divinity lies in bridging the opposites. The teacher at the ashram in India taught the practice of seeing all as God. See all as good, he said. “Think good, see good, be good, do good.” This is a way to unite the opposites. Through this practice, wisdom arises and the mind begins to explore the nature of goodness and what it truly means. Very often goodness relies on perspective. Think of the hawk again. From the hawk’s perspective, it’s good to catch the rabbit. But from the rabbit’s perspective, it’s good to escape being eaten. From a higher, divine perspective where the essence of the rabbit and hawk are the same, there is no good or bad; there’s simply a play of life as it unfolds.
Krishna, in his enlightening discourse to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, gives some insight to this higher perspective. When the story begins, Krishna and Arjuna drive in a chariot across the battlefield just before the fight. Arjuna sees many people he once called friends and mentors on the opposing side and loses heart. He says to Krishna that he cannot slay them, that his actions would be judged as bad. But Krishna sees from the perspective of divinity. These people are destined to die today, he says. You can be a part of this and go down in history as a great warrior, accepting to do what you have been trained for your whole life. Or you can turn away and go down in history as a coward. He goes on to say that the body dies. That’s a fact of life. But the essence that animates the body is eternal, unchanging bliss.
Neither the one who slays nor the one who imagines being slain perceives Reality. “For the soul there is neither birth nor death,” he says. “The soul is not born and therefore never dies.” With these words we’re moved into the deepest recognition of our self as divine. That recognition completely shifts the ways we relate to the world. It recognizes that all things physical are transitory. All relationships to the body will pass, but the essence that animates and illuminates it remains untouched and immortal. “I am not the body, for the body will be changed like an old dress. I am not the mind, because the mind too will flicker and fade. I am atman, the eternal, unchanging Self,” the inner gardener whispers.
At this level of acceptance, wisdom, and surrender in the secret garden, everything thrives. Harmony prevails and fruits begin to ripen. It’s sometimes easiest and safest to contemplate this and experiment with it inside the walls of your secret garden.
Touching the Immortal Self
A part of experiencing unity and oneness comes through intellectual learning about the concept. But the heart can open to a direct and very real experience of it. Over time through meditation and a gentle opening to life, the veil of separation falls. Through opening up and loving all of humanity, that connection to others expands. If you’d like, explore what it means to see all as one. You may do this by considering everyone you meet as divine. How will you speak to the God in front of you in the form of the cashier or the person who just insulted you? How will you accept and love that person? Through this practice, you will begin to experience yourself as Divine. You’ll see your deep capacity to love and accept. This experience will be a gift that you give to those around you. It will be transformative for both you and those you meet.
Unity Principle—Getting Head, Heart, and Hands Working Together
See good, do good, be good is one of the best spiritual practices to promote both inner and outer unity. It gets the mind, heart, and hands all working in the same, unified direction. This powerful practice requires careful attention to the words we speak. It means making a commitment to keep our word, and consciously looking for the good, the God, in all. This week pay attention to how you see, what you say, and what you do. Do you think one thing, say another, and do yet another? There is great power in paying attention and getting oneself aligned with the wisdom heart and acting from the deepest, best impulses. What commitment will you make to align thoughts, words, and actions?