To Have and To Be

 

What if we replace some common statements with others? For instance: try to use TO BE instead of TO HAVE and be aware of the consequences and the shift in perspective.

I often hear such statements like: you have the life within you, life is a gift from God, and so it’s a sin to commit suicide. Also, life can be lost, life can be redeemed etc. I think this is all wrong. We don’t HAVE anything at all. Who is this “I” that possesses a consciousness, a soul, a life? Is there any life apart from you?

This is total nonsense and the nonsense is due to the ambiguity of empirical language employed in spiritual contexts.

I must admit that, as long as we use language, an accurate rendition of a different order of reality, transcending all categories of thought, can be, in a best case scenario, just a metaphoric pointer to that higher reality. However, I decided to take the chance and share this change in perspective, because I always say and feel that:

I am the soul instead of I have a soul

I am consciousness i.o.  I have consciousness

I am life i.o. of I have a life

I am love i.o. I have love

I am peace i.o. I have peace

I am compassion i.o. I have compassion

I am the way i.o. I have/I pursue a way

And you can go on with this kind of exercise, which I personally experienced as being both creative and enjoyable. So, I’m just giving some examples below, which replace characteristics or attributes with an assertion of oneness with the totality of existence.

I am the beginning and the end and the essence that pervades the beginning and the end, the life that makes possible both birth and death.

I am the light and the darkness and the energy that sustain all light and all darkness.

I am the dancer and the dance itself.

Therefore, I feel that we have/we possess nothing whatsoever, absolutely nothing, but on the contrary, WE ARE EVERYTHING.

If we assume this shift in perspective, things won’t change, but we will.