I was a hidden treasure and wished to be known, so I created that I might be known.
– oral Islamic teaching.
Everything can be seen as God longing to know itself.
Everything is God manifesting, exploring and experiencing itself in always new ways.
And that includes our human life and the longings in our human life.
The quiet love for God and truth is God longing to know itself through waking up to itself.
The impulse to seek and wish for anything is God longing to wake up to itself, and to experience itself in its richness.
All of these are God longing to know itself, filtered through our human life.
The quiet love for God and truth is there as soon as there is a sense of a separate I. There is – somewhere – a knowing of what we are, a sense of discrepancy between what we are and what we take ourselves to be, and a longing for what we are to wake up to itself.
When there is a sene of a separate I, there is longing in the form of seeking, wishing, wanting and so on, and these are filtered through our identifications with stories and identities.
Sometimes, it looks spiritual. It can take the form of devotion, prayer, meditation, selfless action.
Sometimes, it looks mundane. A search for knowledge, status, safety, approval, love, belonging.
Sometimes, it looks less than pretty. Domination. Cruelty. Suffering. Despair. (Love filtered through particularly strong beliefs.)
But it is all God longing to know itself. A longing to wake up, for what we are and everything is to clearly recognize itself. A longing for wholeness, for recognizing the wholeness that is always here as what we are, and for the sense of wholeness we can find in our human life. And a longing for living and experiencing fully and richly this human life.
It is all included. It is all God longing to know itself, in always new ways.
And I can find it right here. I can notice what I am, that which all happens within and as. I can notice the quiet joy in experience itself, independent of its content. I can notice the quiet love for God and truth. I can trace all my motivations back and find their innocence, and the essential wish for what I am to wake up to itself, and for who I am to live a full and rich life.
So this longing comes in several flavors. First, as God manifesting as what is, as it is. Then, through the longing in our human life. The longing for waking up, for God waking up to itself. The longing to grow up, for this human life to be lived in a full and rich way. And longings filtered in all the ways they are filtered through our identifications, so they look like all the longings we find in our human life.
It is pretty easy to see how the first ones are God longing to know itself. It is God longing to wake up to itself, and to experience itself in a full and rich way through a human life. And it may take more exploration to see how the other longings are the same.
For instance, take a desire to eat. In itself, it is awakeness appearing as hunger. Also, it is a desire to stay alive, and to avoid suffering and find some happiness, which allows this human self to stay around a little longer. (A more full life.) And if there is identification with hunger and the other stories involved, the stage is set for drama and suffering (at least to some extent), which can only be fully resolved through what I am waking up to itself.
When I trace it back, I find that it is a desire to stay alive and a desire to avoid suffering and to find some happiness. All of those are a desire for a full, or continued, life. It is of course more than appropriate to take care of those desires at a physical level and find some food. But I also recognize that the only way those desires are fully resolved is for what I am to wake up to itself. Until then, I will be identified with stories around food (survival) and caught up in the drama around it, and from within the awakening I can still eat when I am hungry, if I can, but there is no drama. So even a desire for food is – when I trace it back – a desire for awakening.
………
………
Outline…
- god longing to know itself
- manifesting in always new ways, as what is
- in our human life
- manifesting as what is
- longing for waking up to what it is (quiet love for god/truth)
- longing for growing up, live a full/rich human life
- longings filtered through identifications so take many forms
- can trace back
- love filtered
- desire to live a full/rich life (survivie, thrive)
- desire for what we are to wake up to itself
………
Outline…
- God longing to know itself
- Manifesting, displaying, as what is, in always new ways.
- In our human life
- Quiet love for God and truth
- A longing to live a full and rich life
- And filtered through all our identifications so they look like all the (other) longings in our human life
……..
Initial draft…
Everything can be seen as God longing to know itself.
Everything is God manifesting, exploring and experiencing itself, in always new ways.
And that happens also through our human life.
The quiet love for God and truth is God longing to know itself. It is God longing to wake up to itself.
The impulse to seek and wish for anything is God longing for itself. It is God longing to wake up to itself, and to experience itself in its richness.
It is God longing to know itself, filtered through our human life.
The quiet love for God and truth is there as soon as there is a sense of a separate I.
The seeking and wishing is there for the same reason, and is filtered through additional identitifications.
Sometimes, it looks spiritual. It can take the form of devotion, prayer, meditation, selfless action.
Sometimes, it looks mundane. A search for knowledge, status, safety, approval, love, belonging.
Sometimes, it looks less than pretty. Domination. Cruelty. Suffering. Despair. (Love filtered through particularly strong beliefs.)
But it is all God longing to know itself. A longing for what we are – and everything is – to clearly recognize itself. A longing for wholeness, for recognizing the wholeness that is always here, and for that wholeness that can come in our human life. And a longing for living and experiencing fully and richly through and as this human life.
It is all included. It is all God longing to know itself. In always new ways. As everything is, here now. And also more clearly, fully, richly.
And I can find it right here. I can notice what I am, that which all happens within and as. I can notice the quiet joy in experience itself. I can notice the quiet love for God and truth. I can trace all my motivations back and find their innocence, and the essential wish for what I am to wake up to itself, and for who I am to live a full and rich life.
This longing comes in several flavors. First, God manifesting – as what is, as it is. Then, through the longing in our human life. The longing for waking up, for God waking up to itself. The longing to grow up, for this human life to be lived in a full and rich way. And longings filtered in all the ways they are filtered through our identifications, so they look like all the longings in our human life.
…….
Initial outline…
- God longing to know itself
- many forms
- quiet love for god/truth/what is
- impulse/seeking/wanting anything
- finding happiness, avoiding suffering
- mistaken identity creates suffering/lack of happiness
- know somewhere it can be different
- wholeness
- longing for a sense of wholeness as who + what we are
- longing for experiencing wholeness
- connection, safety
- money, food
- being safe, secure, taken care of (knowing what we are shows it is already here + not neccesary)
- knowing, being right
- desire to know
- desire to be safe through knowing (knowing what we are gives that)
- finding happiness, avoiding suffering
- all, expressions of god longing to know itself, filtered in different ways
- quiet love for god/truth/what is – from knowing what we are yet temporarily forgetting, and notice this quiet love when not too distracted
- wholeness – know we are already whole as who + what we are, long to notice/experience it
- happiness/avoiding suffering – sincere wish, many different strategies possible (connections, intimacy, safety, money etc.), only knowing what we are takes care of it
- many forms