What I’ve Learned

[Michael Paul]

The last few months of my life have been very difficult existentially. I fell out of touch with my spiritual side and temporarily adopted a strictly naturalistic, secular, and atheistic perspective on the universe and life. However, after taking a purely logical approach to understanding ourselves and our relationship to existence, I rediscovered the truth that all the great sages throughout history have taught us. 

I think what caused me to fall out of touch spiritually was the fact that I was trying to gain insight strictly by listening to teachers and trying to understand what they meant, rather than figure it out for myself. This ultimately frustrated me and forced me to give up the facade I had created of truly understanding.

Here’s my current understanding: we are entirely comprised of the fundamental substance of existence itself, whatever that substance may ultimately be — pure consciousness/awareness, energy, etc. This is true even scientifically under the materialist paradigm — this view says we’re all made up of atoms, and atoms comprise the entire cosmos. Therefore, if each one of us is entirely made up of the substance of existence itself, then we are not separate from the totality of existence and hence are existence. There is no difference between us and existence itself. The entirety of existence is whole and can manifest itself into a potentially infinite number of forms, and this is everyone’s true Self.

Continuing this line of thought, since we are existence and experience/perceive ourselves and existence consciously, then it follows that consciousness must be a fundamental attribute of existence since we are. This is because, if existence can develop a sense of individuated consciousness with each of us, then it itself must be conscious. 

There is no separation between our consciousness, mind, and perceptions and the rest of existence. The ego is the part of us which prevents us from seeing that there is no actual separation. All of our body’s actions are existence’s actions.

Thanks for reading, hope you got something valuable out of this. I know these ideas are not original to me, it’s just that I’ve finally come to my own understanding of these things.