One way of knowing ourselves is by identifying our core beliefs. In days gone by, many of us were content to follow the beliefs of a church, a political party, or even family traditions. As institutions in our world begin to shatter and as the world changes, we can no longer look to the outside to know the principles that guide us. As we grow and heal, we begin to find our own beliefs and alignment.
Below, you will find five principles that guide my life. I am not presenting them so that you will take them on as “truth.” This is simply an example of how you might find ways of clarifying your own beliefs so you might bring the gifts of your wisdom to the world. These are stories that I have made up. I invite you to write your own stories that you can live by.
1. The creative principle of the universe is Love. I call this God, the Source, the Ground of Being, or the Void. This energy is unchanging and eternal, having no beginning or no end. All that exists is Love. All that exists is made of the same creative energy of Love, although it takes different forms. This God is not personal but one who lives in and through every living thing. God is hiding in everything, playing hide and seek with itself. We are one mind, one breath, one heart, the cells of one entity.
2. Everything in the material world is Maya or illusion, not because it is not real but because nothing arises independently. Everything is dependent on everything else. Nothing in the material world stays the same. Everything dies. All creation is divine play. Duality is required in the manifest world, and this is part of Maya.
3. There are two principles in the manifest world – the masculine active principle and the feminine receptive principle. We, humans, can activate this creative principle through the hieros gamos or the inner marriage, which brings us to unity or the dissolution of all duality.
4. Time and space are illusions that exist as laws in the manifest world. At the beginning of what we know as the manifest world was the big bang or the creation. From the beginning, all potentialities existed in the implicate order. We are the seamless unfolding of that creative event. In this way, we are God unfolding. Although time seems to be linear, all time is going on simultaneously. There is no past, present, or future, only the moment, which holds everything. Everything is one. Our job as humans is continually expanding our consciousness in the cosmic play.
5. We are not our bodies. We are not who we think we are. Our true self is in the God Self, which is eternal and unchanging. This has nothing to do with our ego selves. We shed our bodies when we die and return to the Source (without our egos). The soul’s life continues to learn, and it takes on different bodies to create situations that teach the required lessons.
Now it’s your turn!!!