Being

Now and then, when we engage in philosophical talks, we refer to people as ‘living beings.’ Although the term is rich with the nuance of a deep and subtle philosophical truth, we tend to take the phrase for granted in our everyday speech. We can focus on the word ‘living’ and feel comfortable with relegating the word ‘being,’ to a back seat. We know that we are living for we obviously display the qualities of life. Within the innumerable activities of life we breathe, think, eat, feel, run, play, laugh, grow and love. We ultimately display the ‘final’ act of life in this body when the living body to which we are accustomed, dies. Everyone is well aware of the difference between that which is alive and that which is dead, for death is the total absence of the energy of life. It becomes easy to define life when we are faced with a human body devoid of it. Without doubt, all the obvious manifest qualities of our living experience convince us that we are alive.

Life is something we take for granted; something that we accept without question as our right and our natural state. We usually fight for this right to live and have great difficulty dealing with the notion of not being able to continue our lives when faced with the sudden termination of our contract to live if terminal illness, intolerable old age, or accidental or imminent death manifests. It is usually only when we are extremely troubled do we question life as a necessary axiomatic state to be accepted under all circumstances and conditions. In extreme cases we think the unthinkable and start to examine death as a gateway to a better condition (for some, it is a state of void) where our suffering can be finally resolved. It is true for everyone that life includes physical, mental and emotional pain where events out of our control lead to unwanted trouble, hardship, despair and grief. Yet these seemingly negative experiences are at least partially offset by the love, laughter, joy, peace, happiness and enthusiasm that almost everyone attains even if only for some moments. Dealing with these extreme opposites in a world apparently built on duality often can be a trying and difficult experience.

It is the intensity of these experiences within duality that convince us that life is simply an ongoing sequence of events that have a greater or lesser effect upon us depending on the circumstances and situations we find ourselves in by fate or design. We sometimes see these events to be within our control but often we watch helplessly as events manifest without our control. In either case, when we become fixated on these events and circumstances, that together with our subsequent reactions to them become the very substance of life itself, we build a network of dependable responses to the sensory stimuli we can directly perceive as our fortress of defense against the unexpected and unwanted. Or at least this is how life seems to be to us in our present state of awareness.

Let us examine this supposition in greater detail. Consider again the phrase ‘living beings.’ We understand well what it means to live and we have no doubt about our own definitions of what is life for we are convinced and conditioned by the definitive experience of our own lives and the lives of those close to us. Further, even if we do not consciously remember, our mental and energetic bodies have sufficient experience through previous lives to know well what it means to lose life connected to this body at the time of death. This is clear and obvious, but have we properly focused our attention on deepening our understanding to what ‘being,’ refers? Remember, that in the phrase ‘living being,’ the word ‘being’ is of equal importance; it is only our choice, or perhaps our prejudice, that gives priority to the word, ‘living.’

For those who are not aware of more evolved spiritual concepts of existence, the idea of ‘living’ takes priority to the idea of ‘being’ which is relegated to a secondary position or given no importance at all. Those who have not experienced what it truly means to ‘be,’ think of ‘being’ as a concept not worthy of a separate discussion or examination, for it is only a word which indicates who is ‘living’, not a state which has independent importance or existence. For them, the ordinary life everyone is familiar with is the fundamental and unchangeable axiomatic truth upon which our conscious existence rests. But is this really true? Is ‘being’ subordinate to life, a mere noun that indicates the entity that lives, or is it in reality the verb ‘to be’ in another form, a form which indicates the substance of our existence as life? Is life a subordinate subset of being?

I am sure that a vigorous debate could be had about this concept , but for me it is clear that being is the original and most powerful state of our existence and is, in fact, our existence. When we see our natural existence through the distorted powers of perception with which we have grown accustomed to experience reality, we call this distorted existence ‘life.’ But in truth, it is our being that is life and all experiences within our existence are meant to be a pure product of our being.

To be or not to be, poetic as it is and indicative as it is of the inner conflict between the unavoidable reality of our lives and our dreams, cannot be questioned. We cannot choose to be or not to be for being is what we are and not being is not an option. The very fact that we consider ourselves powerful enough and independent enough to make that choice proclaims our beingness to the universe. We can choose to use our natural power to block off our perception of our being, but nothing we can do or conceive of can negate that beingness. To me, this is the axiomatic truth upon which all processes of self-development, self-awareness and personal evolution are based. But this concept will remain theoretical without our having a direct and comfortable experience of being.

It is through the often difficult process of accepting our being as it is, without distortion, that we gain the possibility to evolve to the pure and natural state of consciousness that is our existence and is the pure vehicle for all that we know, do or express in our lives. This acceptance leads to the expression of what we are and gives us the taste to reject that which we are not, namely our false conceptions of identity based on what we think we should or could be. Beingness is our nature and our right. It is devoid of the artificial or external impositions and obstacles we have been taught as truths in our early lives. These are the same so-called truths that we have accepted as our guiding stars before we could develop our independent and relevant wisdom to know what is the right and good direction that will guide us through the sea of experiences we must inevitably face. When one is at the level of one’s being, one sees clearly without the cover of the external veil, one hears clearly, feels clearly and knows all that should be known while one is connected to the energies of the universe and those within it. It is in this state that one can experience to the topmost limits of one’s capacity.

When we accept ourselves as we are, without imposing upon ourselves that which we are not, all opportunities to grow come within our grasp.