| "Everything in the universe is a pitcher brimming | | | | awareness. |
| with wisdom and beauty." | | | | Ananda is bliss. It is utter and indefinable peace |
| -Rumi, 13th Century Sufi Poet and Mystic | | | | and joy. |
| Is the universe friendly? | | | | This is who we are in our essence. And because |
| On the surface this seems an absurd statement. | | | | we are this at a non-dual level, we must accept |
| Looking deeper, your response might be to say | | | | that reality as we know it is a massive |
| no after reviewing all the calamities of your own | | | | hallucination. |
| life, the often-vicious response of governments | | | | On the quantum level of reality, particles are |
| around the world to perceived threats to their | | | | merely dancing in and out of existence. |
| power, the narcissistic military and industrial | | | | Furthermore, they are not made of anything. |
| complex that constitutes what we call civilization, | | | | They are non-things. |
| the awkward and dysfunctional personalities that | | | | So, on a literal level, the entire world as we know |
| you have to deal with daily, the devastation of | | | | it is as real as the movies we see projected on a |
| natural storms, the cruelty of the animal kingdom, | | | | screen, which as we all know is nothing but a |
| and the bloody history of our species. | | | | dance of light in various shades. |
| Yet despite chaos, horror, and the imminent | | | | On the cosmic level of reality, we are spiritual |
| possibility of terror, I hold to the belief that the | | | | beings having a human experience. We are literally |
| universe is friendly. | | | | dreaming the world into being; projecting it from |
| It is friendly because we are not this game of | | | | the thoughts and feelings we have about it. |
| chance that we see all around us. | | | | Remove your mind from the world and the world |
| We are, in fact, not victims of linear time. | | | | itself collapses into nothingness. |
| Our home is in the non-linear dimension. And we | | | | The entire purpose of life is to shed the illusion by |
| reside there as magnificent beings. In fact, we are | | | | awakening our souls to the realization that we are |
| an expression of an invisible and invincible force | | | | not victims of the projection of our minds. We |
| that we call God. And this God has three | | | | can, in fact, begin the spiritual journey at any time |
| characteristics which are our own. | | | | to extricate ourselves from the illusions that |
| In Sanskrit, the three characteristics are known | | | | make us so unhappy. Somewhere along that |
| as "sat-chit-ananda." | | | | journey, the veil of matter will fall. It is then that |
| Sat is beingness. It is pure and absolute presence. | | | | you will realize that the universe is friendly after |
| Chit is knowingness. It is complete and total | | | | all. |