Everything Belongs, Nothing is Excludable

The phrase "All My Relations" has been a curious one to me for some time. Supporting it is the idea that somehow, inexplicably, despite appearances of separation, we are connected at a most fundamental level. Many might say this is not objectifiably easy to prove. Then again, with research into mirror neurons and epigenetics, as well as quantum mathematics, it may very well be that the proof is out there, even if we’ve not yet been able to make the evidence readily accessible.

Regardless, whether we want to think of our reality as an evolution from the primordial ooze, which would suggest that all Creation is infused with the evolved “life” that embodies all things, or a single act of Divine Creation, the idea that we are intricately linked is a powerful one.

One of the first accountings that captured my attention was a trusted spiritual teacher who described being transported from his body into the awareness of a tree, literally watching the world from a different vantage point. While his was not an experience that was induced by a psychotropic drug, rather through deep meditation, it mirrored the experiences of many who have had such hallucinogenic states.

Along the way, I discovered a wide array of reports of altered state activities that produce experiences of Oneness. At some point in time, we have to assume that somehow these accounts are revealing a truth.

I still remember the first-time experience of what some call the “watcher,” or the “observer.” One moment I was immersed fully in myself, as myself, and an instant later I was watching myself from outside myself. It was pretty startling. I thought, “What is this? If I’m not me, then …”

Some time later, I had an out-of-body experience. Deep into the night I had an extended time of hyper-awareness of me hovering over my sleeping form. Strangely detached, and with a profound clarity that the sleeping form was not me. The experience was not sought, no action produced it, it simply came to me. Once again, if I’m not that body, then …”

A few years ago, an active and vibrant dream life began for me. Gauzy revelations of houses with an infinity of elements within them, treks across familiar but otherworldly landscapes, and strange teleportations to captivating places and experiences. Somehow, it was clear I was being led through another realm, one that is not literal, linear, or worldly. And yet, because of the feel and clarity of these dreams, there is something relevant, meaningful and pertinent from beyond.

Sprinkled along the way are aura-filled awarenesses, moments of clarity that connect seemingly unrelated things, and even connections to others that are inexplicable.

Most recently, I experienced something of which I’d read: the I-Thou relationship. I’d long intellectually conceived that we are bound to each other. On this particular day, I felt it and saw it. First a connection to a long-time friend in recovery. Then it shifted in a moment to an I and Thou and God experience. That each of our connections to the Divine actually bring us into communion. As if that were not enough, I saw (with a twist of southern humor), I and All Y’all and God are One. Finally, there was a springboard of awareness of an interrelatedness of all things.

A Course in Miracles captures this through the lens of the “special relationship,” which means that any time we profess love in a unilateral fashion as a single relationship, it must expand to bring in everything. It can’t be love and limited to only one person, or place, or experience. As Richard Rohr says, “Everything belongs.”

More profoundly still, infused into the Creation itself are relationships and belonging. We cannot turn toward anything without it being linked, mysteriously and mystically, to everything.

Seeing True in Reality and In Practice™

We are belongingness.

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Ram Dass says we are all just walking each other home. In fact, we are the walking itself, and we are the home to which we are walking. It cannot be otherwise.

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For another parable that points in the same direction, see this spiritual anecdote that came to me a few years ago.