(How to view the Universe, Part 2)
Welcome back! Last week, I shared my Three-Part view of the Universe: The Great Reality, Inner Reality, and Outer Reality, a so-called “Theory of the Realms”. To recap: I believe that coming to understand these Realms and learning to live harmoniously in them is the ideal way to live. Aligning with Love is how to live in that harmony, with a Higher Reality, ourselves, and the world around us. I went into considerable detail addressing how I believe this Great Reality is beyond our full comprehension. I proposed that even if we think the Universe is only governed by the Laws of Science, we can still extend that orderliness and harmony into our day-to-day lives. We take a great deal on so-called “common faith”, not religious faith, but just that the sun will indeed rise each day, and the like. So then, can’t we extend that to believe there may be something “more” that we simply can’t understand? Could we consider aligning ourselves with that?
I went on to say I think we are all trying to find something greater than ourselves. We want “the good life” or money. Many of us want more noble things, like causes we believe in to be helped. We all want something more. I also recounted how my experience with the shingles illness brought me to a more expansive view of this Great Reality, and my understanding of God. I wrote again of the “Great Flow” of the Universe, and how I believe God was directing me. I sensed God was aligning me, so I could go on to do things like write this blog.
Part 2: The Inner Reality
This one really is easy to grasp. We have an “inner life”. We have thoughts, feelings, desires, opinions, and a personality. I believe this collection makes up your soul. This is you–the you inside. You may be very aware of these parts of yourself. You may have no idea about a lot of them, either because you weren’t taught how to access them, or it is not of deep interest to you. Not everyone wants to probe their psyche! In this blog, I do, and I like to do so, as I think we need to get down to some of the why’s of why we behave as we do.
I already wrote at length about a vital portion of this Inner Life: your Ego, Expectations, and Myths. (Go over to the Archives Page, and scroll down–the links are all there.) https://align-with-love.com/archive/ I also further wrote about Approaches to Life, also accessible on the Archives Page. These Approaches are a very important “stance”, or position to take, as we navigate these Realms. Openness is essential with the Great Reality. Lightness is essential with the Inner Reality. I think we all need to not take ourselves too seriously, hold our many opinions and beliefs with some graciousness, and be willing to hear others. Openness and Lightness actually work with all the Realms, as does Alignment. When I finish laying out these Realms, I will be able to get more into how to practice with them in my “How do I Practice?” segment.
Sometimes, when the UnIverse has not behaved as we thought it should, via our expectations and myths, we can get “angry” at this Great Reality. We reject any notion of God or Higher Power, as we see all the evil around us, and assume He/She is really not doing their job! Starvation and war, mass inequities that are even on your street corner, do seem to fly in the face of any Benevolent Being or Force. So, it make sense we may dismiss religion. Or if we had faith, we let it dissipate out of our lives, due to how we see things not being “fair” or “right”.
Often times, those with a formal religious faith turn away from it due to other followers who behaved very badly! Terrible abuse has been done by religious leaders, mental, physical, and sexual. Along with that, such leaders can sometimes just plain manipulate people’s desire to be “right” with the Almighty, and this takes it’s sad toll. I get it-I was traumatized by well meaning Christians too. They were people who told me, or didn’t make clear to me, how God really is. We are touching a lot on the Outer Reality here too, the world of everything and everyone else. We will delve into that more next time. For now, we are focusing on how we are perceiving things in ourselves, even if the perceptions were taught to us!
To continue, I am taking it on Faith how God “is”, but I think if we are quiet, many of these notions I am putting out here will resonate with you. They resonate because beneath your mind’s thinking and processing, and your feeling’s feeling, I think you may know down deep that there is more to life. You may be saying “nope” in you head, and even in your heart, but down deep, some part of you knows. You just may not have found it yet. You may not have started aligning with that yet. I hope this blog will help you get in touch with that deeper part. “Down there” is a real “you”, what others have called Your True Self. Find that, find that True Self, and really start living and loving from there–that can be powerful. The world is filled with folks who are cut off from this version of themselves—don’t be one of them.
So notice this Inner You. Call it your soul, if that word works. But Inner You works too. How are you feeling? What are you thinking? Does the world seem unfair? Why? What sense of rightness/wrongness are you living by? What makes you angry, or delights you? Why? How did the notions you got of the Great Reality shape your ways of thinking and feeling? Was it Sunday School, or Church? Was it the “Street,” or a horrible home-life? Was it trauma or tragedy? Sit with these questions. You’d be amazed how much of our views of life really came from formative moments as little children that we have never revisited. I am going to save that for next time. For now, just observe that Inner You.
Don’t critique–I’m sure you do enough of that. For right now, don’t critique your feelings and thoughts, or whether you are seen as smart, or “spiritual”, or “together”. Just watch. Notice. Again, ask yourself where your thoughts/feeling are coming from: your religion, mom and dad, or other care-givers, school, or maybe even friends? I’ll say again, I am NOT a therapist or counselor, so you do want to be careful what you dig into, in this Inner You.
As we look at this Inner Realm, we can see how our mis-perceptions, or lack of perceptions, about the Great Reality influenced us. We can also readily see how we have issues dealing with others in the Last Realm: The Outer Reality.
More to come–
Stay Open. Stay Light.
-Eric, the Wordsmith
BP23