Author: macil

The older I get, the less objections I seem to have to the phrase "All is One."

As an extension of our last article: "What is natural?", essentially all distortion can be traced directly back your distance from from God -- from life -- from people. From your "qualia" -- your experience. Again, distance being a hide-and-seek game with your own will.

For the context of this article, what is "distortion?"

Distortion is most easily understood as fear, but manifests more as consumption (as in, the consumption or expiration of your experiential world), but it is technically whatever isolates you further within yourself and lengthens the time between your decisions and the execution of your will.

I use the term fixation rather than density, because it is easy to imagine yourself fixating on something -- on focusing on something with intent. When you understand this idea of fixation, you can work backwards to connect yourself to the idea of the "world" you are experiencing before you. You can "broaden your horizons" knowing that you are the horizons.

Density is a little harder to convey, in my opinion. Density suggests a heaviness, which can be felt but easily missed. Density doesn't relate you to your experience quite as well. I use the word fixation because it lets you sink your teeth into the idea through a simple exercise. Look closely at any object near you. Now, unfocus your gaze and take in as much of your room as possible.

When you are unfocused like this, do you feel different? I want you to note the feeling between the two perspectives. Do you see how you "exclude" the background when you are focused? And do you see how when you "broaden your horizons", you include everything? This is similar to how you may have viewed the world when you were a child and closer to a "natural state." Now use your imagination and see how you may "fixate" like this on other ideas, concepts or people beyond your sensory perceptions as well.

Here is another trick. If something requires

The best definition of natural can be summarized as: 'a measure of distance from God.'

Now, what do we mean by distance?

God is your immediate scene. The context. It is life. Your immediate qualia. It is everything that is derived from "you." It is all around you and everything within you. The seen and the unseen. This is Unity, or the practice of unifying everything you experience -- the physical world, the mental world, the subtle (invisible relationships, definitions, meaning) and other people -- as "one."

While this article will not address this, it always requires a disclaimer: Some people on the spiritual path are uncomfortable with the concept of the "I" once we start understanding Unity as if our ultimate end is the removal of the "I" to melt together. This knowledge will still be useful to you if you believe this, but I -- see what I did there -- believe it creates a omission, or a hole, if you "eject yourself" via "ego denial" and then you have broken Unity. You can recognize you are part of the "all" while maintaining value over your part in it.

When you understand this Unity, then anything that imposes a weight upon it can be considered a distance. In order to have experience -- in order to impose some sense of order upon the cacophony of omniscience -- we must impart these weights. Weights might also be considered judgements, or boundaries. The way you experience a flower is a collection of boundaries.

You must have a concept of perspective -- seeing behind your eyes -- a sense of physical distance -- the space between you and the flower -- the texture of the petals, the scent, the shape -- are all boundaries that are required for you to have an experience. There are more subtitles that are hidden here as well like disowning a part of your will to allow a sense that the flower is 'not you', that allows the flower to borrow your will to grow and so on.

... read more