Who are you, and what are you doing here?

I want to start by asking you two of the most important philosophical questions in life: 1) Who are you? For that matter, Who am I? and 2) What the heck are we doing here? Honestly. I want you to question your basic assumption of who you are as you, and think about what you do and why. Why are you reading this right now? Are you truly present here? Are you truly present throughout the majority of your days? Did you think about why you did the things you did today? Why you made the decisions you made about your time and your resources and your energy?

Most of us simply do not put that much intentionality into our daily lives. We live in a routinized, habitual state of semi-consciousness. Everyday we do similar things. We wake up, we brush our teeth, we put on clothes, we eat, we go to class, we go to work, we smile absently at people we know. We come home, we watch TV, and we eat and sleep some more. We slowly let ourselves become creatures of habit and of subtle and pervasive socialization. And we therefore don't let ourselves be the glorious people that we can be.

Why? Do we do any of the things we do out of a true need or desire to do so? Do we go to class because we truly yearn for knowledge? Or do we go because we are expected to go? Were you actually hungry when you ate today? Did you actually taste every bite? Some Buddhist monks believe so much in intentionality and mindfulness in everything that they make eating a simple bowl of rice a 2-hour process! They discipline themselves to fully taste ever single bite. Can you imagine actually doing that?! I bet it would significantly alter our ideas of what true hunger is.

So, how and why are we caught in this cycle of monotony, of semi-consciousness? Why do we move from event to event, with little to no realization of the moment in which we are? Why do we pass over so many possibilities to build relationship and to make real and honest connections with people, with ourselves, and with our environment? Why can we not let our inner light shine?

I think there are multiple factors that play into this, one of the most important of which is fear. Fear, I would argue, is the most debilitating emotion that we can experience, and it stems from many sources, probably the most important of which is ignorance. We as members of a globalized and technological world have somehow managed to lose connection and become more ignorant in a lot of ways. We have lost connection with our bodies, as we look to "experts" to tell us about things that we should be able to instinctually determine for ourselves--things that our human ancestors have known about instinctually for thousands of years. We have lost connection with the earth on which we live and grow, as we know very little about the depths of the natural processes that occur almost imperceptibly around us, never ceasing. We have lost connection with those around us, as we fail to see the utter humanity and spirit in everyone with whom we come into contact, and as we remain ignorant as to the depths of their beings. We have lost connection with our own souls, as we rarely take the time to determine how we truly feel about our lives, or to think about what we are doing and why. And through all this, we have lost connection with God, and we have come to fear the idea of getting back that which has been lost. We fear the reconnection and the elimination of our own ignorance.

The intense socialization and hegemonic control over the social consciousness that we experience in our lives keep us in this state of stagnation, of hesitancy. And these phenomena are borne out of fear, which manifests itself in the desire to amass "wealth" in immense quantity. This desire leads privileged people to levy their influence in such a manner as to mold society through mass media, education, and other forms of imprinting. We are taught to want to be like these people, rich and powerful-and to value material wealth, power, influence and prestige above all else. We are not taught to value ourselves simply as people, and we are not taught to values others simply as people. The environment and other human beings are to be seen as resources, and their value is to be merely in their instrumentality to us.

This social reality is very intimidating, real, and frightening. It is easy to lose hope when I realize that this is what we are learning, this is what we teach our children. And yet, somewhere in the chaos, in the disconnection, I feel love and grace holding me up. Even with all that is unjust and off-kilter and depressing and maddening in this world, I just can't seem to shake the deep-seated feeling that I am afloat in a deep sea of love and grace. The Universe, in all its vastness and mystery, is somehow cradling me in this assurance. With all the seeming bad and evil and injustice in the world, some constant force is there through it all, and it is difficult to separate it from everything else. For all is One.

I believe that this vast universe of which we make a small stitch is nothing less than God manifest. Every star, every dust particle, every honey bee, every Eucalyptus tree, every child, and every sweatshop laborer is full of God's spirit, and God in fact is them. As physical beings, we can only hope to know God through these tangible things, through nature, and through other human beings, but we are passing these opportunities by every day. Why? Because we are largely ignorant of this potential for connection, and because we are afraid of what might be if we ceased to be ignorant.

It is my belief, therefore, that what we are most afraid of is in fact our potential and the potential of others and of the world. For if we truly accepted everyone's holiness and truly allowed ourselves to see the spiritual connections between all that is, the world would look very, very different to us. If it is true that God is manifest through us, then we all have infinite possibilities within our reach. We have the ability to do incredible and amazing things, and we have the potential to utterly and completely alter our reality. That is intimidating.

If we truly accept that every living thing is an integral and important part of God, then we must respect and honor all life. That puts a lot more responsibility on us. Because if we accept this, then we cannot stand by with integrity as human beings suffer, as animals suffer, and as the environment slowly suffocates around us. We must take a stand. For in fighting for one tree, or one person, we are fighting for ourselves, for God, for all of Life.

The experience of one Self, is the experience of all Selves. When a majestic tree is cut down, all the Earth cries out in pain. When a child dies of malnutrition because of economic injustice, we all die. In each moment, we are experiencing utter despair, death, birth, joy, peace, exhilaration, and suffering. And sometimes, it is difficult to see these moments in their entirety. It is hard not to get caught up in the tragedy of it all, to not want to hate the world for its evils and injustices. But that would leave us cut off from God. For then we would only see certain parts of something, that by nature, is One.

I utterly reject the idea that God does not need us to fulfill God's supposed plans. God is not all-powerful. God is in relationship with us, and only through that relationship, and through a relationship with all things, can God's light shine through. To me, God's presence is in the underlying reality of the Universe, but it is up to us to see that and embrace that. We are essentially responsible to create our own realities and to create the reality of the world. When we choose to accept that divinity in us, and in our lives, then God becomes more visible to us and to those around us. Therefore, as a people of faith, we have a responsibility to inculcate God's presence in the world.

But how can we do that? To realize our potential as human beings is also to become as fully divine as we can be. It is to see with new eyes-the eyes of God. In God's eyes, every living thing is valuable and is part of this living, breathing web of gloriousness. When we realize our connection to everything, then we are seeing with Holy, spiritual vision.

We can honor this connection in small ways, like practicing economic justice by only buying fairly-traded coffee and not supporting sweatshops in our wardrobes by only shopping at thrift stores and sweatshop-free companies. We can simply ask someone how they are and truly mean it, and listen as fully as we can to their reply. We can turn off the lights when we're not using them. We can resist cultural imperialism and homogenization by refusing to watch television. We can go outside and sit in the dirt, and really try to feel all the life around us. We can simply practice intentionality in all that we do.

We can give up all the possessions we don't truly need. We can support local, community-based economics and business. We can choose not to support corporate factory farming. We can start our own non-profit organization. We can give lots of hugs.

There are so many ways in which we can honor the life-force and the Spirit that is all around us and all within us, and whatever we choose, let us know that we are practicing our inherent ability to manifest God's glory to all the earth.

So I urge all of us, including me, to simply take the time to contemplate what exactly it is we are doing here. What legacy are we leaving behind us in each moment? What memories are we making for the world with each breath that we breathe? As we participate in the constant cycles of life and death that surround us, let us remember to be the change we wish to see. To be the change that puts us into relationship with the Divine. Let us create realities and realize potential, and let us simply live in such a way that each day is precious and amazing unto itself. May we see the world with new eyes. May we all look into a river, sit in a tree, or experience the immediacy of connecting to other people. May we keep living in death and life and holiness as we find out more and more about ourselves, and about our place in the Universe.