Ten Lessons in 2020: Unity Consciousness

Photo: Alexis Chivir-ter

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” - Winston Churchill

I led a meditation practice a few days ago, inspired by one of the sutras from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra text, the last two lines of this sutra say, “The light that you see by, Is the light that comes from inside.” And as I do with each sutra, I took liberty and poetic license with Lorin Roche’s interpretation as I closed my eyes and improvised - I have found my gift in connection with this text this year and I trust the Spirit to move through me in each practice as I share what comes up.

I imagined the “invisible sun,” one of the three altars of our bodies and practice, above my head as another sutra instructs, and I guided our attention to this light. As we moved through the practice, embodying the light and consuming ourselves with this light I ended the practice by carefully sharing that the light above us is a shared one, one that we are all tethered to.

Light is easy, it’s something everyone understands. It leaves dogma behind, is easily accessible, universal, equal…loving.

If you are like me, you see light in people; it’s the satguru part of each of us. The beautiful thing about this part of us is that no one has more than the other, we are all equal; all our own gurus, all filled with light, all knowing, all powerful, all sovereign.

Not because anyone gave us this light or knowing, but because we were born with it.

I have known for my whole life how optimistic this belief is, and I’ve lived my whole life wanting to believe this. This year tested my belief in ways that it has never been tested before.

This year I looked a new darkness right in the eyes and it scared me. I felt naive at first but with help I walked straight into it, into the place in me where it lives too. You see, if we are indeed all tethered to the same light then any darkness is ours too. This year I practiced walking into the collective darkness and using my light to transmute the darkness into love.

I embraced the idea that it scared me because of the perceived separation.

I felt hate, I felt judgement, I felt shame and guilt and fear…I felt anger and loss and death. I felt injustice, inequality, intolerance…and so much more. When we can do this, from a place of light, this is HUGE.

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” - Mary Oliver

I feel the divide, I think we all do. In some respects we are more divided today than ever before. This year showed me exactly where the divide is and when you can see it you have a choice, a personal choice, to share your light or not. In my experience, those who can and do share their light are the ones with no enemies within.

Perhaps instead of choosing or thinking, we just take this new invitation from the Age of Aquarius and we drop into our hearts and FEEL. We get into the place of truth, we fan our inner flame so that the light we see by is so bright that others see by it too.

I will forever be an optimist. An optimist with a lot more clarity thanks to 2020.