The Sacred & Conscious Design Of Life

This sacred and conscious design that holds it all together is holding it all together for a very sacred purpose.

In some way we can say it's the only purpose,

It's the only thing that matters.

Even though you can imagine 10,

000 other things that matter,

And that's fine.

But what's real?

What really matters?

If we really get in touch with the sincerity of our own heart,

We get so close to seeing what really matters.

Which invites us to let go of the things we're hiding behind.

What an adventure that is.

I'm extending to you an invitation to just be here with me.

Assuming that there is somewhat of a curiosity within you for these things that I talk about.

And I feel so blessed and honored to share this moment with you.

As we gently investigate the nature of life and being human.

Ultimately understanding or remembering or opening our heart to see just how miraculous this opportunity is to simply be alive.

And of course,

As we open up,

As we see what's true,

In every instance there will be a falling away of fear,

Making space for more love to bloom.

So what a gift it is that we have the opportunity to honor that discovery.

To honor what is real and true and surrender all of the adorable nonsense that we imagine to be happening,

That's not really happening at all.

On my heart today,

My goodness,

I am blown away by what I will call life's sacred and conscious design.

I want to spend some moments reflecting on this,

Sharing what I see.

And in that sharing,

You have the opportunity to see what you see.

And we are beautifully allowed to see whatever it is we see.

And of course,

As I look at what is seen,

I also see that it's impossible to adequately describe.

In the way that if I was staring upon the most beautiful sunset and I was a terrible painter,

It would be a little bit difficult to paint this sunset and help you see what I see.

And that's how I feel a little bit with these clumsy words,

Is that I am attempting to illustrate maybe poetically a beauty that is seen,

That is right there before me.

And I'm using these colors that we call words in trying to piece together an image that points you in the direction with the hope you might see it too.

Which,

Of course,

Is why this is so comical.

Because I know I can't really describe it.

I can't really tell you what it is.

But yet it is hands down the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

And it inspires what I refer to as this life of devotion,

Where I can't stop talking about it,

Where I can't stop inviting people to see it if they're interested in seeing it.

So in the spirit of that,

Life's sacred and conscious design,

And let me start by saying life itself,

The totality of what it is,

Is so beautifully designed to the point where there are no mistakes.

There is only to not see the whole picture.

And if this design goes unseen,

This perfection,

This divinity,

Then life becomes a painful and arduous journey of chasing some imaginary illusion of an impossible self-importance.

Thinking that this life must be about me and the prize is somewhere off in the distant future.

And so I must escape this moment and find that precious thing I think I'm missing so that I can one day be better than someone else.

So adorable,

Are we?

And yet in the design,

In what is real and true,

You will find no need for such a quest.

And you will see that what we have already been given,

What we have been birthed into,

Is not only more than enough,

But at its core is the very thing you are seeking.

This is to run around the world,

Chasing what you think you want,

Not realizing you've had it the whole time.

And of course,

Running around frantically,

Chasing something that seems to not be here,

Almost implies that life made a mistake and it's up to you to correct it.

This,

Of course,

Is to not see what's really true.

And of course,

As I attempt to fumble my way to some sort of conclusion or point,

I think it's wise to just recognize that adorable distinction where we are so commonly lost in the mind.

We are so commonly being led around by a fear,

A fear that only exists in our imagination.

Whether that fear is,

I'm afraid I'm not enough,

I'm afraid of losing what I'm holding on to,

Or I'm afraid I might not get what I want,

Which is a fear that I'm missing something.

All of this is imagined.

All of this is simply a belief in an idea,

An idea which is confused as reality.

It's to think that what you think is real.

And it's incredibly innocent,

So much so that I would say that it's part of the design.

It's okay.

But,

Of course,

That speaks to our intensity of dilemma where we assume it's not okay.

Therefore,

We must frantically run around and fix it.

Can we take a moment and look at life for a second?

And I'm not asking us so much to think about life,

Even though we will use the instrument of mind to communicate to one another,

But to see that thing which is impossible to describe.

Just like to gaze upon a beautiful sunset and not have the words to describe what you see,

But yet you try anyway.

This life that we're living,

To be here right now,

To be alive.

Is that not miraculous?

Is it not miraculous that in the appearance of 10,

000 things that are seen and not seen,

There is this symphony that holds it all together?

And if one element of those 10,

000 things becomes unaligned with everything else,

The whole thing collapses.

Is it not amazing that within your body there are trillions of cells that somehow organize themselves in such a way that you're here right now,

That you are awake?

And that there are endless functions and processes happening within the body that are not separate from nature,

All of which need to be happening exactly as they're happening so that this can be this.

That the stars have to be what they are,

Even if we don't understand what they are,

For this to be this.

And my goodness,

The symbiotic nature of nature,

How everything is in service to everything else so that this can be this.

Where life eats life,

And then the life that eats life is one day eating itself as it gives itself back to life,

So that life can be life.

As if it's life that matters.

That this miracle continue on in every aspect and every part of this divine symphony at some point simply returns,

Gives itself back,

And there is nothing that escapes this.

I mean,

We can call it the 10,

000 things,

But you see that I'm talking about everything.

Everything.

And everyone.

That was,

That is,

That will be.

Every insect,

Every animal.

Every plant,

Every microbe.

Everything.

You could not count all the things.

You cannot even see all the things.

And yet it is all wrapped up in this fascinating dance.

And to what end?

Well,

Gaze upon the sunset and maybe you'll see.

So that this gift,

This miracle can be.

And my goodness,

We can say that's just what's on the surface.

There's a whole nother depth to this,

A whole nother world as it relates to everything that is going on inside of what you are.

And the journey that you're on,

Not just on the outside,

Maybe more importantly on the inside,

And how that too is inescapable from this sacred and conscious design.

And this is partly the point that I want to make in some way,

An invitation to see how intentional all of this is.

Everything you experience.

And to relax the argument that in some way proclaims it's possible for life to make a mistake.

That proclaims it's possible for something to happen outside of the arms of everything.

As if it's not all being held.

It's so obvious why throughout the millennia,

Human beings can't help but talk about some flavor of God,

Yet another sunset we can't actually describe.

But yet we have a sense of it being there.

Something sacred is happening.

Something extraordinary.

And furthermore,

I guess the more honest we get about our experience,

It becomes very difficult to ignore a truth that this is somehow about love.

The whole thing.

Which,

Of course,

Speaks to the invitation.

Not our idea of love,

Not our fantasy of love.

But a love that we simply don't have the words to describe.

A love that is so profound that if you look at your human experience,

You will see that it's the only thing you're chasing.

It's the only thing you're afraid of losing.

And yet we hide from this by telling silly stories about it,

Saying it's something else.

Which is so obviously seen when you look at any problem you have,

And when you unravel it,

You see that it's a fear that you're not enough,

Which is a fear of not being loved.

And so crafty are we at telling our stories and saying it's about something else.

Hiding from a deep truth of why we're here.

Getting lost in those stories.

Ultimately and effectively disconnecting ourselves from the real journey we're on.

But this is okay because it's part of the design.

It is part of the adventure.

And my goodness,

How it flips your world upside down the more you see this.

The more you see that this whole human experiment is about one simple thing.

And of course,

To see this kind of threatens everything you think you want this life to be about.

Which in some adorable way is conquering an imaginary sense of inadequacy.

Trying to fix a problem that's not really a problem.

Trying to get somewhere that's not really somewhere.

Exhausting ourselves in the process.

And that's okay.

It's part of the design.

Could it be true?

If it is seen to be not true,

As I said in the beginning,

This is simply evidence of not seeing the full picture.

How easy is it to look at any aspect of nature and say,

Oh yeah,

There's a mistake.

That doesn't look how I think it should look.

It's a mistake.

Well,

That was easy.

But do you see the big picture?

How many times have you been through an experience that didn't go how you wanted it to go and were convinced it was a mistake,

Only to see that it humbled the hardness around your heart.

Softening you into a discovery that allowed for more love to be seen.

Only to realize,

Wow,

That wasn't a mistake.

But I was so convinced.

I was so convinced it shouldn't have been that way.

And everyone agreed with me.

The whole world agreed with me that it was a mistake.

But yet I saw how deeply powerful it was.

Transformative it was.

That invited me to let go of my own nonsense and open my heart to something that's profoundly true about life.

Maybe about what love really is.

Being invited to let go of my fantasy of how I think it should be.

Could it be true?

That it's all on purpose and I understand it could be such a cliche thing to say.

But I understand it's seen as cliche because we don't see the truth of it.

We don't see the truth of it.

Right?

To say it's all love.

Well,

That's cliche.

I get that.

Because again,

It can't really be spoken.

But yet it's true.

You see my friends,

This sacred and conscious design that holds it all together is holding it all together for a very sacred purpose.

Very intentional.

Very important.

In some way we can say it's the only purpose.

It's the only thing that matters.

Even though you can imagine 10,

000 other things that matter and that's fine.

But what's real?

What really matters?

And it's so interesting because in some way if we really get in touch with the sincerity of our own heart,

We get so close to seeing what really matters.

And we let go of all the things we pretend to matter,

Which are just things we're hiding from to help us avoid that depth of honesty.

Which invites us to let go of the things we're hiding from.

What an adventure that is.

Do you see how that's a beautiful illustration of some epic quest?

Maybe illustrated by slaying dragons,

Going into dark places,

And bringing a light.

And stumbling upon some profound discovery that exposes the real courage and heart of what you really are.

To reunite with the truth of your nature.

To see just how whole and complete you really are.

And do you see this?

That throughout time we are a species of storytellers.

Partly because we're on this quest to find this truth,

But this truth can't be spoken so we tell stories to point to it.

And all of these stories are pointing to it.

You look at any sacred text and it's full of stories that are essentially trying to point to this but we get lost in the stories.

Thinking that the story itself is true as if that even matters.

What does it point to?

What is it attempting to illustrate that can't actually be defined?

It demands such a sacred stillness.

What does this expose?

Isn't that funny how we argue about which stories are true?

It's so wild that the whole world can throw itself up in arms,

Defending which story is the right story,

As if a story could actually be true.

As if a story can define reality.

As if that which is imaginary can touch that which is real.

My goodness!

Such a beautiful invitation to release all the stories.

To get out of the mind and make contact with reality.

We are so determined to protect these stories because we're ultimately trying to protect the story of ourselves because we're identified with the story,

Thinking it's what we really are.

Which is thinking that what you really are is a product of imagination,

Which is quite hilarious.

What I really am is this imaginary story.

What?

This is the cosmic comedy.

My goodness!

You see,

I understand the struggle,

Of course,

Because I'm human.

And I watch it play out in me all the time.

You know,

And I can talk endlessly about it,

But I'm simply always trying to point back to the same thing,

Which is a profound simplicity.

But in our capacity to get lost in the stories,

Is like our capacity to get lost in a complexity that's not really there.

And so much we're trying to figure something out,

Which is just a complexity produced by the imagination.

So we're trying to figure out something imaginary,

But we think it's real.

It's like thinking there's 10,

000 questions you have to answer,

And you find out,

Actually,

There's no question.

Because the answer isn't in the mind.

Which again,

Is the invitation of spirituality to enter into a space of stillness,

Which invites a stillness of mind to see what's really true.

It's inviting you to set down the mental commentary,

Because the answer isn't there.

And to breathe,

And open your heart,

And make contact with something that the mind simply cannot see.

And again,

For the one who lives in the mind,

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Because for them,

There isn't anything outside of the mind,

Which is like saying they are lost in a dream.

Where they think that what they think,

Which is what they imagine,

Is actually out there.

And so part of this sacred and conscious design,

As it relates to the human perspective,

Is an adventure of waking up from this dream.

Which is like discovering the most epic prize,

A prize you've had the whole time.

That has been inside of you,

A prize that no one else gives you,

Which is also a prize that no one else can take from you.

It's like asking the fish,

How is the water?

And the fish says,

What water?

Or the fish being told about this sacred substance called water,

And it frantically swims around trying to find it.

It's so immediately there that the fish can't see it.

It's breathing through the fish,

Which is the comedy when you see it.

Everything we go through,

Every expression of emotional disturbance that you have,

All of the suffering is part of this sacred and conscious design that serves a function to wake up to this.

And how often do we look at our experience and assume that this is not part of some sacred design?

This should not be happening.

Not realizing that what you think shouldn't be happening isn't actually happening,

Which is your imagination about what's happening.

Which is also like saying,

What you think this means doesn't mean what you think it means.

And that's the whole dilemma.

We are projecting a dream of meaning,

Which is so often reflective of somehow this jeopardizing our worth and value.

This means I'm not enough.

This means I'm unlovable.

It does not mean that.

It's an innocent misunderstanding.

It's a conditioned misunderstanding.

I wouldn't even say it's yours.

It's everyone's.

But it's also part of the design.

And we can say,

Oh,

Well,

That's dumb.

That's a mistake.

Well,

Do you see the bigger picture?

In fact,

We could probably say that in any time there's emotional disturbance,

The bigger picture is not being seen.

And understand,

My friends,

We have so many misconceptions about what this prize is,

How it should show up,

What it looks like,

What time it should arrive,

And what it means about our life.

And all of these assumptions,

They distort the path to see it.

And that's fine because part of the design is to work through these misunderstandings,

To release these misunderstandings,

To see beyond them.

That's part of the adventure,

Which is to release aspects of yourself that are simply not true.

Whether we want to call these self-imposed limitations,

Self-limiting beliefs,

It's all the same thing.

They are misalignments between how we see reality and the way reality really is.

And so we are clarifying our perception.

And I've said many times that that is all healing really is.

It is a healing of perception to see things as they really are.

And as you see things as they really are,

Which is to see reality,

You will see that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Because in reality,

My goodness,

There is nothing to fear.

We only fear the content in our mind.

And I'm not going to dive into that rabbit hole because I've talked about it so many times.

Maybe the conclusion,

To whatever degree you can,

Admits this time we've spent together.

But invite a trust in this design,

In what has been created.

I'm not asking you to trust your ideas about it,

Your opinion about it,

Your argument with it.

I'm asking you to trust what is obviously some sacred dance that maybe the mind simply cannot comprehend.

This really speaks to the invitation to not lean on your own understanding,

Which is to lean on your own imagination that does not see the whole picture.

This also speaks to an invitation to not worship images,

Which is the same as worshiping thought,

Worshiping imagination,

Which is to proclaim that your imagination is true.

Which is another form of pretending that you know something that you don't really know.

Because the truth of this discovery goes hand in hand with allowing the unknown to be the unknown.

Which is simply honoring what's actually true.

Oh,

I don't know,

And I'm pretending to know.

I'm pretending to know because I'm trying to protect my illusions.

I'm trying to protect a particular image of myself that I'm chasing in the future.

And even when we look at other human beings and we feel anything other but absolute love for them,

We're proclaiming that we know something that we don't really know.

This is the nature of judgment,

A judgment that does not see the complete picture.

And it's so wild,

The nature of that,

To judge.

And how it's so obvious that we are proclaiming we know something that we don't really know.

And the more we pick it apart,

The more we get honest about what's real and true,

You can't help but drop that judgment.

And from that falling away of judgment,

What exposes itself is compassion,

Which is also the foundation of life.

Don't you see in all of the spiritual traditions,

They're leaning towards some flavor of love,

Compassion,

Kindness,

Forgiveness,

Joy,

Peace,

Freedom.

Which is to say they are all leaning in the direction of what's actually true.

It's not some sort of moral expectation of you should be like this and you should be like that.

No,

Forget all of that.

They are natural byproducts of what's real and true.

See what's real and true and all these other things are effortless.

When you see what's true,

Good luck even trying to judge someone,

It's not possible.

And in the absence of that,

What flows is compassion.

It reminds me of the biblical quote,

Seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness,

And then all of these things will be given to you.

Oh my God,

Do you see the story in that that's pointing to something and then how we turn it into something dogmatic?

But what it's really saying is seek first what's true,

What's real,

And all these other things that you want,

Love,

Peace,

Freedom,

Forgiveness,

Compassion,

Yada,

Yada,

Yada,

They'll be given to you.

Because the truth is where all of these things come from.

And every other spiritual tradition is saying something similar.

This life is a sacred and conscious design.

And our forgetfulness of that is adorably perfect.

It's part of it.

And what makes forgetting this so problematic and painful is not the act of forgetting,

But it's the judgment that you forgot,

Which is to think it's not part of the design,

Which is to not see the required it is,

How unavoidable it is.

And the more this is seen and that judgment falls away,

It becomes adorable.

And yes,

The world will not understand that.

My goodness.

And that's fine.

That's part of it.

Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness.

If this inspires a presence in you,

Which is like a deep curiosity,

An openness of heart,

Then if you haven't,

I invite you to make this discovery a priority.

As if it's the one thing that matters most.

As if it's the one thing this life is really about.

And to give yourself to it.

And again,

It's not a demand.

It doesn't work that way.

It's not a you should.

It's you see that it's true.

And in seeing that it's true,

There's simply no other option.

And then how that will continue to unfold in your life,

We'll find out.

But you see the very clear invitation to honor it,

To acknowledge the misunderstanding,

Which is like,

Oh my goodness,

I see that I'm not seeing things clearly.

I see that I'm turning things into something that they're not,

And I'm suffering because of it.

I'm confused.

And the willingness to admit that,

My goodness,

What a door that opens.

Which is simply a willingness to acknowledge what's true.

And that is where it starts.

Thanks for joining me today.