VOLUME 1: I AM the Spirit in the Body (Extract)
Dedicated to the timeless Self within the seeker,
who watches and guides and inspires the
receptive mind.
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science....
Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.”
Albert Einstein
Why you cannot find ME
(This Volume is written in the first person as “the soul”).
I AM the Spirit within who lives with you and gives you life, but you cannot see me and you know me not. I dwell in a world too fine for fleshly eyes to see, and in realms too pure for busy human thoughts to enter.
I AM your essence, your awareness and your very Self*, but you cannot find me with your mind. Neither does your body know me; people have denied my existence for ages because they cannot find me in the body.
I have my being amidst the ineffable glories of the timeless, abstract world of the soul, but because I was originally seed-like and am still unfolding my life and powers, I have not yet achieved realization of myself in you and so you are not aware of me.
Yet I would have you know of me beyond the mind, for I AM a centre of being and of knowing, and the embodiment of truth itself. I know by uniting with the essences of all things that abide in my world, and so I do not need to wonder or to think. Indeed, I can only think within your mind, so let me into your heart and mind that we may reason together, that you may see I must exist, and I may tell you what I AM.
* The words ‘Self’ and ‘soul’ are used interchangeably and have the same meaning; they refer to the spiritual entity that incarnates in the body.
Because the mind comes from the body, these two form a close-knit duality, but between the mind and me there is a GAP that the mind cannot cross. This is not a gap in space, for I AM spaceless as well as timeless; it is a gap in consciousness, that even the most exalted thoughts of mind and intellect cannot bridge.
I AM not far away*
It is not that I AM far away, for I AM closer than hands and feet, closer even than breathing. I AM just behind your sense of ‘I AM ness’, which comes from me. If you look deep within the silence of your heart, you will see that my awareness enters your mind as a point of light, which lights you up and gives you consciousness.
I AM like the light you see in a cinema that lights up the screen to reveal the film. From where you watch the light appears to be in the film and its moving images, but it is not; it is in the projector and it is constant, not moving. The role of film turns and intercepts the light which is reflected in the images, but the light itself is not in the changing images, nor is it affected by them.
In the same way, I AM the unchanging source of your life and awareness, which I project into your body and your mind, but I remain beyond in my timeless, abstract world. As the roll of destiny turns, in my light you experience life and see the changing images in your mind, but you cannot find me there. I AM the perceiver of all you perceive, the observer of all you observe, but you cannot find the observer in the observed, or the painter in the painting, or the creator in the created, because they are not there. The source of something cannot be found in the something.
* I and I AM (in italics) refer exclusively to the soul within and behind the personality, and not to the personal self.
The mind and the bodily senses are external to yourself, whereas I AM at the very centre of yourself. I AM in everything you do and you can do nothing without me, but you cannot find me in what you do. To find me, you have to turn your gaze within, away from the chatter of the mind and senses, and in the utter silence of mind and heart, seek to trace your awareness to its Source within the centre of yourself. Only there can you find me, who is the God within.
Until you have become like me, you cannot consciously unite with me and enter into the glories of your birthright. So let me into your mind and heart to impart the truth that I embody, and reveal the pathway you may take that leads to the joy and bliss of union with me. May you choose in freedom to follow where I lead and draw ever closer to me, for I AM your very Self at a spiritual level of being – I AM what you truly are – YOU (personality) and I (the soul) ARE ONE.
While you as a bodily personality are self-conscious, I as soul am not yet aware of myself, consequently you are not yet aware of me. This is because I was originally seed-like and am stil unfolding my faculties and powers, which are largely potential but not yet actual; it is the work of the human evolutionary process to actualise and manifest my God-given powers through my personality (you) and to thereafter attain COSMIC and GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS.