The Sacred Dimension

This article is re-published from the Ekhart Yoga blog in 2013.                               

      

The awareness of a new dimension of living is arising.  It is not new in the sense that it has not existed until now. On the contrary, it has always existed, even before the concept of existence itself....

It has been here since the beginning of everything we know and also all that we don’t know, cradling and bathing all in its divine, sacred essence.
It is so close and so connected to us that, most of the time, we have not even realized it is there.  In fact, this sacred dimension is so magnificent, so comforting and vast, terrifying and beautiful all at the same time that for most of us to really see it and truly know it would be more than our bodies and minds could handle.  So a bit like wearing a nice pair of sunglasses to filter and buffer the brilliant rays of the sun, our individual egos have built a lovely buffer of a thought-based identity to protect a deeper sense of vast being from being noticed.

Egoic sunglasses

In this process, we have used and depended on the lens of the ego so closely and often that we have forgotten that it is simply that: a lens through which the sacred sun shines. All too often our whole experience of living becomes seen ONLY through the lens of thoughts, analysis, judgment, and ego.  The vivid brightness of this sacred dimension still shines clearly, but we do not see it most of the time because it is filtered by the egoic lens of thought, clinging to a projected image what life should be, an identity, a me.
As a result, our whole experience of life becomes created and led by a thought-based ego.  We get caught up in the tidal waves of analysis, judgment, and emotion.  A very exciting ride, no doubt, but perhaps not quite the whole picture, as we subtly forget that we are wearing the egoic sunglasses to buffer the brilliance of the totality of All Life.  Somehow, the sheer magnificence and sweetness of Life itself gets covered up by the veils of thought-based ego.
The great news is that, despite all the filters and covering up, that magnificence is ALWAYS there!  It is the underlying essence of every breath we take, every thought we have, everything we see, hear, taste, smell and feel.  It IS everything!

Yoga

For some, there is a deeper, internal knowing that there is something more than what we experience through our egoic glasses.  And perhaps somewhere along the path of Life, there becomes a distinct crack in the egoic lens, perhaps though the practice of yoga or other sadhana in which there is an inquiry into the true nature of living.
All of a sudden, the immense, sacred brilliance of the Eternal Sun shines through.  It is overwhelming beyond thought, beautiful beyond compare, so vast. Too much for the egoic mind to hold or filter anymore, so the only thing to do is to let go.  To take off the egoic sunglasses, place them aside, and bask in the radiant brilliance.  To feel fully that we are the vessels through which this Divine Light shines, and to accept and allow this Light to express itself fully without the lens of the ego filtering the brightness.

Terrifying

For many, this collapse of the ego can be terrifying, to give up everything we have built our lives to be???  The identity, the image, the striving, who are we then, if we are not these things?
When we let go lovingly to that which we so tightly cling the egoic concept that we are somebody or need to be somebody when we let go of these, we are free.  There is space: the space for this Sacred Essence of life to flow in all of its magnificent glory without getting filtered or blocked.

Freedom

This is our challenge:  to realize that the filter of the ego is there, and set it aside for times only when it is necessary.  To rest, cradled in this Sacred Dimension, deeper and fuller than our minds could ever know ourselves to be.  To let go into the ultimate freedom of not having to be me in a strictly egoic sense, yet at the same time, allowing a Me to arise that is beyond, yet at the same time in balance with, our thoughts.  A Me which is a beautiful vessel through which this Divine, Sacred Dimension can express itself fully without strain or striving.

Pure love

When we truly know ourselves, not as a specific person or identity, but as the space through which Divine Life expresses itself fully, then our experience of living becomes a magnificent journey, embracing every experience of joy, pain, sadness, ecstasy and wonder as an experience of Pure Love in all its amazing, infinite forms.