I Am

 

We may be in only one of a countless – yes, innumerable – series of lives where every choice is taken to new ends in each episode. And, since time is a complete illusion, there is no reason to doubt that these countless choices are really made at once and it is the various realities which fork off in countless directions, every time a decision is made with the free will we enjoy.

I doubt we could ever get our finite minds around the idea, but with a limitless mind, we could imagine this entire life-experience being ran, changed, re-ran, changed again and again and again. It could easily be imagined as a lab-experiment. There is no reason for any of us to insist this is it.

Imagine your own experience and how it would be vastly different if you’d been born the other sex. Think about how it would be different if you were of another race. Think about more recent and less extreme differences; like: how would everything be different if you hadn’t bought the car you now drive?

This happens. In fact, what you think of as another, is really only another set of choices and ingredients put together as another version of you. Every human on earth is a unique example of only one species being put together in various ways. Every species is a unique example of only one life, animating various ways of putting life into beings.

At the center of every black hole, the singular, lack of opposites waits to become the plural explosion, erupting as otherness and collapsing back to Oneness.

When you think of yourself, you’d be mistaken if you thought that was who you are.

So who are you?

“Who do men say that I Am?”

If I were to ask you, “Who are you?” how would you answer?

Would you give me the name given to you? Would you tell me where you were born, having made no decision to be born there? Would you tell me of your family, which is another choice you did not make?

Or

Would you begin with the choices you did make? Would you tell me where you chose to go to school? Would you tell me who you are in a relationship with? Would you tell me about your children?

Even in the second series, you’d just be telling me about choice you made as they occurred to you as options.

So if I frame the question differently and ask, “Who are you, excluding what has happened to you or what was offered to you as a choice?” would you have an answer?

I hope I could finally ask the right question where the only possible answer is the one with no labels and the one devoid of occurrences; if I did dig down far enough, you would say, “I Am.”

It is a simple answer. It hasn’t a thought associated with it, but it is the answer we all have in common. “I Am.”

One day, you could forget your name. One day, you could forget where you were born. One day, you could forget your entire family. One day, you could forget everything that has ever happened to you and everything you have experienced. On that day, I could ask you, “Who are you?” and, if you still knew enough about words and sentences, you would say, “I Am.” But you could go no further.

Not to fear: your amness would be intact. And not to fear: you could be reminded of all you have forgotten. To remind someone of anything is to bring it back to their mind. This has already happened to you and you didn’t even know it. When you were born as a single “I AM”, you had to be given a name again. Then, day by day, you were given experiences again. Then you were given choices again and you made them differently and you robed your amness with labels and here you are, reading about yourself in my book.

If it were at all possible for you to suspend all thoughts pertaining to every label assigned to you and everything you’ve ever experienced, you’d still be “I AM”.

We are all, essentially, The One I Am.

The Essential nature of All is just that: it is the fundamental reality behind Oneness.

I could say it another way and it might make more sense: There is only One event and you are it.

You are it.

If I used the term universe, you are it.

If I said Life, You Are It.

What you are is not unlike a flock of birds, moving around as one thing, thinking in unison, behaving on behalf of the flock arranged as You. A bird flies away and that is a thought. Another bird flies away and that is a day. Another bird flies and there is another label. But each bird lives forever, forming with various flocks; meaning: parts of you will be parts of others in endless and various ways. Until, obviously, at various points infinitum, you find your youthful birds, reminding you of the flock you were before and flying in unison again; and for a moment, you find yourself here, reading these words again, thinking how ridiculous, but intriguing this idea is.

Here is the best news I could ever offer anyone: You could not possibly die.

If you do not believe that, then ask the most distant star in the universe to look for you, where you are right now. The star would say, “I see nothing.”

That’s because, if that star could see where you are, it would see you as you began, and it would say, “Why, that is a long time in the future and it has not happened yet.”

But some time, far, far into the future, the star would say, “Wait, I see something.”

And that would be you, forming for the first time.

Then that star would witness your entire life.

But then, when you thought you’d died, an even more distant star would say, “Wait, I see something.”

And that would be you again.

This goes on for an eternity.

We are all, perfectly fixed in all possible intervals of all time and space, within the great net of Indra, reflecting each other and all others in every jewel. Every jewel reflects you and you reflect every jewel.

The real key is this: If you are, then it is already impossible for you not to be.

There is One Constant which always Is. That One Constant is Perfect Love. You could easier step out of the universe and consider it from beyond than to step out of Love and see what it is aside from You.