The Ocean that Dwells Within You
Years ago, I left the ashram. I felt so full, filled with my being, overflowing with Knowledge. I needed to share it with the world, so I began lecturing on spirituality and personal growth. At an early lecture, I explained that our divinity lies deeper than thoughts and deeper than emotions. A woman put up her hand and asked, “But what else is there?” Shocked, I responded, “What lies beyond thoughts and emotions is the grandeur of your being, your Self, your divinity. The unbounded source of all life and existence.”
We have all experienced how thoughts cycle and repeat themselves, while emotions churn relentlessly. Life can feel like a seething torrent of thoughts and feelings without end. Highs, lows, confusion, clarity- it all leads to exhaustion. Yet, there is a silent ocean that lies deep within you, beyond thoughts, beyond emotion, a field of peace referred to by the ancient sages as “the Self,” your Self, your inner being.
There is one universal Consciousness that we each tap into as our own individual awareness. Who and what you are is far beyond thoughts and emotions, incomprehensible, vast and unbounded. There is only one Consciousness, one field, one ocean. Yet every individual taps into it in the form of their own individual awareness. That ocean dwells at the depth of all things, all beings, all creatures, just like the silent depth of the ocean dwells as the source of every wave that churns upon its surface. Your consciousness is one with that Consciousness. Your being is one with that Being. You are that. You have only to find it within the depth of your being, within your soul.
Consciousness cannot be touched. It cannot be grasped. But like the sun, the rays of its influence emerging from the very source of all existence can be felt, radiating through your body. Those rays are called the soul. You can feel your soul. Follow your soul to the depth of the ocean.
We intuitively strive to reach this depth, but often the exquisite nature of the Self can be overshadowed by the surface of life. The surface of life can indeed be profoundly alluring. The force of its distraction is so great that people lose themselves to it. This is called ignorance, ignore-ance — to ignore the depth of one’s being, one’s Self. The opposite, enlightenment, is a wonder. Enlightenment is simple: it just means being awake to the depth of one’s being, awake to the ocean. The greater wonder is that something so vast can be overshadowed at all.
The simple truth is expressed in so many ways, in so many languages. In modern physics terms, you are one with the unified field. You are one with the source of all existence that is the grandeur of your being. Some say it another way: you are one with God. There is so much confusion around divine consciousness, yet it is so simple. Everyone has some sense of it — some sense of their inner being. We protect it, we cherish it, it is our life. Yet, the thoughts and emotions that spin around it distract and confuse. Awakening to it is not a philosophy. It’s not a belief system. It is the natural state of the physiology freed from distraction.
The trick is to live in the world without losing the sense of Self to those surface distractions. As the sage has said, “The trick is to have the boat in the water, but to not have the water in the boat.”
Dr. Michael Mamas is the founder of The Center of Rational Spirituality, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the betterment of humanity through the integration of ancient spiritual wisdom with modern rational thought. From personal issues to global trends, Dr. Michael Mamas helps individuals and organizations develop a deeper understanding and more comprehensive outlook by providing a ‘bridge’ between the abstract and concrete, the Eastern and Western, and the ancient and modern. Dr. Michael Mamas has been teaching for 35 years (including the U.S., India, Europe, and Canada) and writes on a variety of subjects on his blogs: MichaelMamas.net, DrMichaelMamas.com and RationalSpirituality.org.
