WHOLENESS - Wonder and Love
By Garin Samuelsen
May 31
“The God within us is the one that gives the laws that can change the laws. And it is within us.” - Joseph Cambell
“All of us have wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them.” Charles Dickens
Rather than looking outside myself to learn about who I am, I took the journey within. Within is where I came to understand that the inner and outer are one, that life is whole, that all is intertwined, and love is the expression of myself. I realized that to try and fix all the problems in society seemed impossible and hopelessly daunting. I observed that society is nothing more than a reflection of my conditioning that has been taught into me. I needed to get underneath my conditioning and the imprisonment of my mind and wake up into what has always been, wholeness.
I challenge us to think about a different way to be, one that is in tune with who you are, and one that sees how all things are related. Money, materialism, outward success and growth will never make you truly happy. In fact, all those end up doing is perpetuating violence. Only in being free and authentic shall you truly discover the joy that is inherent in you.
Wholeness is undivided, immeasurable and includes all. In wholeness, all are included in love’s embrace. From the smallest particle, to the entire cosmos, all is included. Every plant, every animal, every river and stream, every mountain and valley, every forest and desert is woven and dissolved by love. Even the stars and galaxies are embraced. Stopping to see one thing, I see the Universe flowing in its form. In love, all manifestations disappear into one undivided stillness and emptiness. Love lies in the stillness of presence, the unknowable source, the immeasurable essence within each one of us. Truth and love is when the personal is not.
All is wholeness and the expression of that wholeness is nothing but love. Wholeness is complete, perfect, flowing through all things. Wholeness is presence and is reality. There is no arriving here or progress. This is and has always been and will always be you.
I have nowhere to go and nothing to be. I don’t need to be somebody. I am. And even this is not really it either. I am beyond all definitions, all measurements, all labels. I am at home within myself. No matter where I am, I know I am okay and whole, alive, and free. Here, I live simply. In simplicity, there is no I am but wholeness. In that wholeness, all horizons open,
In the fire of awareness, I see that sorrow is not innate within anything wild, and like all species, we are not full of sin, but rather perfect in who we are. Inherent in us is the wilderness, and like the wilderness, we are free and intensely alive. I see that even when I struggle, all is alright and I can now watch my thoughts and feelings and let go. I also feel the enormous suffering we create and feel the sadness of this great sorrow.
Life is wonderful. Even as I became clouded and weighted down by the darkness of my conditioning, the light of wonder kept pushing through my anxieties and fears, somehow lighting my way, allowing me to see that there was something underneath my thinking. After many years, it was wonder that made me stop and listen, helping me break free of my societal conditioning and sorrow. As Albert Schweitzer shared, “Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.”
Wonder is in all moments. We live in an immeasurable, infinite wholeness. How can there not be wonder? I have seen wonder flow out of the dazzling radiance of a dragonfly darting and hunting through reeds and cattails. I have seen wonder flow in the kaleidoscopic texturing of the arching daytime sky. One can see wonder flow in the dynamic interplay of life and death, a circle that has no end. Wonder flows in the pallet of colors erupting upon the mountains and plains. Wonder flows in the nuances and slithering meanderings of rivers and streams, lakes and oceans. I have seen the magic of Aurora Borealis, the indescribable immensity of the Grand Canyon, and ventured deep into the heart of mountains with granite peaks that slice into the sky. I have looked into the eyes of many of our Earth’s inhabitants, and in all these species, I see wonder and an innate immeasurable quality. I see one’s infinite beauty within the eyes of every being I meet..
I see that even if I never left my home in Waterbury, Vermont, I would be able to voyage just as far as if I traveled across the Universe. In every step and every breath within the presence of wholeness, I see wonder, the beauty of change, li and the flow that moves through all. Here I experience love. I truly don’t need anything. Wonder begins within ourselves, when we are open to life. Here, we shall discover freedom living and breathing in every moment.
Love is the most powerful force in the Universe. Love is Wholeness. Because love is whole, love doesn’t crave, does not force, does not need anything. Love is the binding force of all that is. Love doesn’t conform, and is vulnerable. Love doesn’t try and hide nor manipulate.
The only thing that can heal the spirit, the animus of life, to reconnect ourselves into our innate state of wholeness and into the world and Universe again, is love. The pathless land of love lies in earnest presence.
If we stopped rushing and listened in complete openness, letting our minds quiet and still, we would see that we are not separate, that we are whole and that we need not fit into our dysfunctional society. We would notice that in our own movements, we are actually contributing to the dysfunction and division. In stillness, all illusions slip away, wholeness is.
Authenticity happens when we are open. When not stuck in ego, when not worried about the past or future, when we stop caring what other people think, when we stop and question authority, when we stop buying into materialism, when we let go of out conditioned thinking, we release into wholeness. In this, we know that it is the conditioning, implanted by a fundamentally defective culture, that is the problem, not us inherently which lets us know that we can rediscover who in fact we truly are. It is not our human nature that is dysfunctional, but rather our culture. Yet, identifying with our culture, we act out the dysfunction.
Reality can never be built by thought and can not be experienced through the lens of the past or projections of the future. Reality lies in presence. In presence, all things melt away in the fire of awareness.
We are born whole with an immeasurable potential to love. As adults, we could be focusing on trusting this innate wealth within each child and helping to guide them to meet their potential. Can you imagine how beautiful it could be if our communities would help each child realize this potential? Imagine how we would treat each other and all of life.
If we lived in wholeness, and thereby did not see division, there would be no hierarchy, racism, sexism, war and the destructiveness to the environment. Instead of focusing on traumatic violence such as energy put into political and military power, into herbicides and pesticides, into materialism, community, joy, equanimity, freedom, and interconnection would blossom. Love would flow through us in all our relationships. We would see how deeply we are threaded together with all life.
Our dreaming consists of how we identify ourselves, the conditioning that we hold onto, and our worries of the past and ideas of the future. Let go of thought and be in the silent flow. If we simply can observe openly without thought, we would see that all the problems and sorrow are not dreamed up by a God but rather by us collectively. In the quiet of our mind, we will discover who one is. Here is where right action blossoms.
We can live in Wholeness and health within oneself and with the world around us. We don’t have to constantly be progressing and be at war with each other and the land. We can live in love, in balance with a respect for all of life. We would see the destructiveness of factory farming, industrialized fishing and not want to contribute to the imprisonment of animals and stop buying into those practices.
Inherently is a want to love, to do good, to live authentically and live a life of wonder. We come into the world with this need. We have the capacity already accessible if we are all given the guidance and trust to foster this - especially our children. We just need to discover the essence, beyond thought of who we truly are. Here, dig into awareness, and continue to let go of thoughts, let go of all beliefs, and in what is left, will be beyond anything we could ever imagine.
