The Youniverse

• We have imagined a world where animals are kept in cages.
• We have imagined a world where pets are bred on one hand while others needlessly die in shelters on the other.
• We have imagined a world where slaughterhouses exist.
• We have imagined a world where there is such a thing as third-world countries and first-world countries.
• We have imagined a world where militaries exist.
• We have imagined a world where students learn about the world by being told about the world instead of experiencing it first-hand.
• We have imagined a world where 9-5 workdays exist.
• We have imagined a world where caffeine is needed to jolt us from our sleep and keep us awake during our unexciting days.
• We have imagined a world where one person makes less money than another for doing the same job, just because she has different body parts.
• We have imagined a world where nature needs to be “developed” and where polluting our air and water for industry is good economic practice.
• We have imagined a world where sweatshops and child-labour exist.
• We have imagined a world where people are dying from over-eating in one part of the world while people are dying from not getting food in another part.
• We have imagined a world where people who imagine things differently are mocked and ridiculed.
• We have imagined a world where being unhappy, overworked, underpaid and stressed out is considered normal.
• We have imagined a world where we produce more than we can consume, and throw out the excess as a solution.
• We have imagined a world where our seniors are banished to die isolated from the rest of us.
• We have imagined a world where we are separate from it and where the world is out to snuff us out of existence.
• We have imagined a world where all these imaginings seem to be out of our power to change.

The reality is that we have the capability and the responsibility to imagine a different world, if we are unhappy with the current one. We can imagine a world that is reflective of our desires instead of our fears. We can imagine a world where we are self-empowered. It starts with imagining a different world, and validating and following that new imagination. It’s all up to us. 

The human race as a whole is currently predominantly in a state of misery.

After all that we’ve been through in our relatively short history, we have come to some core conclusions about what we want in life. We want peace, we want joy, we want freedom, we want love, we want compassion, we want abundance, we want passion and we want harmony, among other things.

Yet the majority of us are not living the way we desire to live and this is where the misery comes in. The misery is created because we desire to be a certain way and yet are resistant to change so that we can be that way. We hold on to past ideas that no longer serve us as the people we wish to become.

This is humanity’s point of depression, where nothing seems to be working and a lot of introspection is taking place. Jobs are lost, houses are foreclosed, economies are failing, wealth gaps are growing, environments are destructing.

At this point in time, humanity’s locked itself in its room and is huddled under its covers, crying and raging, taking a deep look within itself to find the source of its misery. To coincide with this introspection, secrets are being revealed in many aspects of society so that more informed decisions can be made.

When this period of depression is over, much of humanity will be transformed. Through the releasing of humanity’s rage and sadness many systems and ways of life will be dropped as they are seen as outdated and non-serving to its new desires. Resistance will be released and humanity will move into a radically new identity of itself.

In the meantime, much turbulence is ahead, both individually and collectively. It is a time of introspection and release, which may seem destructive outwardly, but is actually highly creative and beneficial. Take the time to release your own personal misery. Move into your own preferred identity and allow the changes to occur throughout the rest of humanity. Above all else, do not fear the changes and do not resist them. They are representative of changes humanity desires to make within itself. Flow with them and create a new identity for yourself. 

We are loved beyond measure, literally. To clarify: love is the energy that creates bonds and integrates and we are connected to infinite existence through an infinite number of bonds. We are each connected to each and every aspect of infinite creation. In fact, we are One with each and every aspect of creation. This is what it means to be loved beyond measure: there is simply no way to measure the number of bonds between each of us and infinite existence. 

This recognition doesn’t need to be on some airy philosophical level either. The bonds can be recognized strictly through observing life as it is right now. Take a look at our existence in our wonderful bodies. For our bodies to exist they must be connected to the workings of the planet, which produces the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat. These are the basics without which life as we know it cannot exist, and they are provided through the loving bond between ourselves and our planet. 

Taking this recognition a step further, the workings of our planet itself is based on its connections with the rest of the Universe. Without its unique connection with the Sun, for example, our planet wouldn’t have the environment to be able to provide the basics we need for us to exist as human beings. This we usually take for granted. The Sun in turn is connected to other larger parts of the Universe and its workings are based on its own connections. The point is that the more we look at every aspect of existence, the more we realize how each part of it is dependent on the whole and how the whole cannot be whole without each aspect. Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is connected to everything else. Everything is loved beyond measure.

With this in mind, it can be said that everything is love. That is, everything can only exist through loving connections and so everything is given existence through love. Now, humanity has talked about love since we came into being, but we usually limit our recognition of it to only a few circumstances. We talk about loving certain people, or loving certain circumstances but if we only recognize love in these circumstances we limit the amount of joy in our lives. Love is infinite, existence is infinite, to exist is to be loved. Recognizing this can make every moment of existence a joy! There is no need to wait to feel loved by someone special. There is no need to feel lonely or worthless because our existence is proof of the love around us. Every breath we take is an act of love and a gift from existence. Every utterance, every action, every thought is an act of love but we just don’t realize it.

How would you behave if you knew of this love? How would you treat others, who are obviously also loved by existence? How would you treat yourself? How would life change? The challenges we face on our planet mainly arise from us not realizing the depth of love existence has for each of us. To solve our challenges we need to remind ourselves of this love by taking notice of our connections, by taking notice of the air we breathe and where it comes from, or the water we drink or the sun lighting up our world. Once pointed out, nobody can deny these obvious signs of love from existence, we just have to take notice of it.

Once we recognize this love around us, it is up to us to pay tribute to it. We pay tribute by living our lives joyfully, which comes from knowing our sense of worth. We pay tribute by behaving lovingly and living with a deep sense of gratitude. It is up to us to recognize how loved we are and to portray our recognition through our thoughts, words and deeds. Right now, we are behaving out of not recognizing the love of existence and out of our sense of worthlessness that arises from not noticing the love. 

In fact, by not recognizing the love that has always been there we have been destroying the signs of the love around us. We have been poisoning our air, water and food so that we reaffirm our belief that we are not loved by our world. We look at the Universe as something out to get us and snuff us out of existence and yet nothing could be further from the Truth. We look at each other as competition who we must struggle against for the love of existence, not recognizing that their existence is proof that they too are also loved. 

Our society itself is based on connections between one another, and yet we treat others as if there is no connection. We fail to recognize that the clothes we wear, the entertainment we enjoy and the rest of the extras in life that make life as beautiful as it is all come from our connections with the rest of our society. Because we fail to recognize these connections we continue to treat the others, especially those in “poor” countries, as less than worthy and we risk ending their current form of existence. What we have done to ourselves, by not recognizing the love of existence, we do to others, creating in them the same sense of separation from the rest of society and from the rest of existence. 

Were we to pay tribute to the love of existence, our society would obviously reflect this. We would recognize our connections with each other and lovingly strengthen them, creating a greater sense of the unity and love that already exists.  

This lack of recognition of love has also given birth to our religions, through which we declare our sense of worthlessness even more, creating more of a sense of disconnection from existence. Paying tribute to the love of existence would create religions that aren’t built on obligations to God or attempting to get his love, but would rather celebrate the love that is already there. Prayer wouldn’t be offered from a sense of worthlessness but a sense of being loved. It wouldn’t be offered to create more of a sense of separation from existence and to get love, but would be a grateful tribute to the ever-present loving connections around us. 

In summation then- as I’ve said in previous posts- what we need on our planet, is a recognition of our loving connections to existence. Whether those recognitions are strictly on the physical level or on the spiritual level doesn’t matter. Each of us can choose whichever is most easily recognizable to us, but the recognition is important. The recognition itself is so powerful that it can change our world in ways we can’t yet imagine.

Once again, as I’ve said in previous posts, it’s up to each of us. It starts on a personal level by paying tribute to the love of existence through our thoughts, words and deeds. Our lives lived is the tribute we pay. Joyful existence is the only real tribute and it is an effortless tribute at that. The question remains, “What would love do now?”, which is another way of saying “How can I recognize my connection with this circumstance?” Because the connection is there, if we look for it. That’s all that is required to create lives of joy, both on an individual level and on a collective level. Recognition of connection and love, always and all ways. 

In our economy the most productive companies are protected and given wealth in order for them to continue thriving. What I don’t get is, under this type of thinking, shouldn’t we be protecting and allowing the planet itself to thrive above all else, since it is the most productive “company” we know of?

The planet itself is what has allowed for the production of everything we know of and yet we treat it like it’s the least productive part of our whole economy. We say that we have to make it “productive” by cutting down its trees so that we can produce paper, but aren’t those trees producing the air we breathe? We also make it “productive” by drilling the shit out of it to get oil so that we can pollute its air, which is the very same air that supports us. It’s all a bit crazy, isn’t it?

I guess the reason the planet gets treated so unfairly is because it doesn’t have hundreds of lobbyists bitching to governments about its sad state of affairs like the other “successful” companies do.

So I guess what I’m saying is, we should all do our part to help out the economy. You can help out by:

1. Sitting under a tree on a nice summer day, instead of cutting it down. 
2. Taking a swim in the ocean.
3. Stopping and smelling the roses.
4. Watching the newest and hottest (both literally and figuratively) reality show, “Nature”. It’s playing right now, outside.
5. Starting your career working for the most productive company we know of. The planet is now recruiting new staff! It offers a great salary and an excellent health coverage plan, which includes: clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, awesome weather and scenery to enjoy, an abundance of healthy food such as fruits and veggies and the like, and so much more. It also provides extremely flexible work hours and the ability to work outdoors and in multiple locations. The planet also provides a state of the art work environment which uncannily mimics the benefits of nature. Interested? No need to apply. Simply decide you want to work for the planet and do whatever you can to help it thrive. 

Our experience of life, both individually and collectively, is leading us to an awareness of unity and oneness. The more we explore the nature of our existence by exploring the nature of our world, the nature of our society, and the nature of the universe, the more we realize that it is impossible for anything to exist as a truly separate entity. 

The fact that many of us don’t actually realize this fact of unity is astounding to me. All it takes is for a person to step out of their preconceived notions in their head and to truly observe what is around them. Maybe people’s ignorance is based on the fact that it may be too hard for them to actually observe what is around them when they are too busy in their daily grind. Sooner or later though, we all will have to come to the realization of unity. Our game of living under the illusion of separation will very soon get too painful and pain, almost everyone has learned, is one of the quickest ways to get someone’s attention. It is through pain that we learn fastest, and it is too apparent that not enough of us are feeling the pain of separation as yet, otherwise we would be making the changes necessary to alleviate the pain.

This is especially true in our cities, where we live in comfortable bubbles of ignorance, separated from the rest of our natural world. In cities people are blinded to many disturbing facts of the world. We don’t realize where our neatly packaged food, or bargain priced clothing, or fuel for our automobiles comes from. We simply buy more, use more and live on in ignorance. Sure, we see hints of the pain caused by our separation mentality when we turn on the nightly news, but hey, that’s in some other part of the world. It’s not happening in our backyard so who cares, right? That oil spill is horrible, but let’s point our fingers at the “others” who are responsible, rather than realizing that we buy the oil from the “others”. Sure, it’s horrible that kids are exploited into making our clothes, but at least it’s not my kid or your kid, so let’s just continue to ignore.

Even when something painful occurs within our own cities, we create even more separation so as to not look how we are connected to the pain. So we’ll hear about a shooting and point our fingers at those living in poor areas of our city, where most shootings tend to happen. We won’t take the steps to realize that we indirectly gave rise to the existence of a poor area in the first place and that we contributed to the mentality of separation that causes one person to shoot another. We do this kind of denial, separation and projection all the time. It’s always about “others” and never about “us” because it’s too painful to admit that it’s all of us who are responsible. 

So the mentality of separation continues, but it is based on illusion. Our experience will lead us to unity. Many of us know about unity, but not enough of us as yet. The people who realize unity simply look at the facts of our experience. There is no question remaining when we look at the facts. We know for a fact that we cannot exist without our natural world and everything it contains. We know that even the smallest and what we term to be “insignificant” parts of our natural world, such as the insects, are crucial to the smooth functioning of the whole system. We know that our natural world cannot exist without our Sun and we know that our society cannot thrive without each other. We know that for any of us to thrive, all of us must thrive. When I say “us”, I don’t mean just humans, even though it is true that for our society to thrive as a whole, all members of it must also thrive. I also mean the entire natural world and our universe must thrive for us to thrive. This is a fact. The fact leads us to the larger truth that we must change our mentality of separation into one of unity if we are to continue existing as human beings.

Unity means we stop looking to be better at the expense of others. Unity also means we stop looking to make others better at the expense of ourselves. Unity means we stop making our Earth “productive” by destroying larger and larger parts of it for the purpose of making humanity more “advanced”. Unity means we stop the mentality of competition because we realize that if anybody loses, we all eventually lose. Unity means an expanded sense of self so that it includes the whole universe, transforming the universe into the Youniverse. Unity does not mean sameness, however. It means cherishing each member of our society, and allowing all members to have an equal opportunity to develop into who they wish to be. Unity means cherishing each member of our natural world as well, and allowing all members to have an equal opportunity to be their own unique selves. Unity is balanced, joyful, loving, creative and expansive. It is freedom for all. It is the opposite of what many of us experience today. Unity is also natural, which means it requires no effort at all. It is simple, beautiful and without struggle. 

Now, we know the truth of unity, and we know there are many who are unaware. Many aware people would mis-understand this situation and start telling the unaware people of the truth. They may start proselytizing. However, their efforts will have gone to waste. You see, the way to bring unity is not through creating more separation, which is what would happen if aware people start telling unaware people of the truth. Instead, the way is through example. Unity will be brought by aware people expressing the truth through their lives. All their decision-making will be based on whatever expresses more unity. When making any decision in life, they will ask themselves, “What would love do now?”, because true love is unity expressed. By being loving examples, aware people will allow others to see how they can choose to exist as well. Through awareness of the truth and the love expressed by truthful people, our world will change dramatically and we will create what some have called “Heaven on Earth”. 

Being told by others to be realistic has been one of the biggest buzzkills for me personally. Or I should rather say allowing myself to be swayed into being realistic has been one of the biggest buzzkills for me. The word “realistic” is usually thrown about as a way of getting us back down to earth and away from our heady dreams and aspirations. To be realistic means for us to stare at the tangible facts of reality and base our aspirations on them rather than on our intangible dreams. In essence, it is a way of dulling the optimism that comes with dreaming or hoping or just being happy about the future. It usually implies anticipating and protecting ourselves against pain and struggle in the march on the path towards our dreams. Yesterday I had an epiphany though, that to be truly realistic, that is to base our perspectives, goals and dreams on the facts of reality, is actually akin to being optimistic. I intend to show you, my dear reader, that you have every reason to smile today and look forward to tomorrow with joy in your hearts.

Now, let’s talk about the people we get our picture of reality from: the realists. Realists are always harping on about the cold hard facts of reality. Their bible is a conglomeration of statistics about how the world is. However, as I will prove by the end of this post, their views and the statistics they use to provide their views with credibility are actually highly pessimistic and negative in nature. To be realistic in the way we have thought of being realistic, is actually to be highly pessimistic and negatively oriented. It is to stare at the most negative aspects of our lives, in the past and the present, and constantly use them to dictate our behaviour and our aspirations. The true definition of realism has gradually been replaced with the definition of pessimism.

Until today, we took the realists at their word about how the world works and the dangers they said we should protect ourselves against. We went to school, got the secure job, got insurance for everything that may go wrong, took our preventative medication and saved our money for a rainy day in the future. We all assumed that the rainy day would come, that our bodies would become sick if we didn’t give them drugs to protect them from the harsh, germ-filled environment. We assumed that inevitably somebody would crash into our cars someday and that people are out to rob us of our belongings. We listened to the realists on the news and in the government who constantly painted what we thought of as the realistic picture of our world. We grew more and more scared and fewer and fewer of us strayed from the safe path we were told to stay on, for our own sake, of course.

From this day forward that realistic view is dead, to me at least. The evidence in the true, whole picture of reality is overwhelmingly in support of optimism and joy. Where do I begin? Here are some facts about the reality of life that point this reason for optimism out:

• When travelling, there are more people who reach their destination safely and without incidence everyday than there are who get injured or die on their journey. It doesn’t matter if they are travelling by plane, boat, car, motorcycle, or any other mode of transportation. On an individual level, there are more days where you travel without incidence than there are where you travel with incidence, and this is true for almost everyone on the planet. Good luck hearing that from the travel and auto insurance industries.
• Everyday there are less people who experience an act of violence against them than there are who experience no violence at all. This means there are less people who experience a robbery, murder, rape or any other abuse than those who don’t. On an individual basis, there are more days where you didn’t experience violence than where you did. Good luck hearing that from the Police board.
• Everyday there are more people who are healthy than there are sick. If this wasn’t true the world would come to a grinding halt as the majority of people would need to be treated for their sickness. This means there are less people who have Cancer than there are who do. There are less people with AIDS than there are who do. On an individual basis, there are more days where you were healthy than where you weren’t. This is true for the vast majority of us. Good luck hearing that from the medical field.  
• Everyday there are more people who experience some form of abundance than there are who experience lack of abundance. This one is tricky to see, but the truth is if most people experienced lack in the way we think they do, our population would not be booming. There are more people that must have access to food, water and shelter than there are who don’t. 
• There are more days where natural disasters don’t happen than there are where they do. Once again, this is blatantly obvious. If they happened all the time our civilization would not be as developed as it is. The world is more likely to harbour life than it is to destroy life. This was true when humans weren’t on the planet and it’s true today.
• There is a larger portion of nature that is thriving than there is that is dying. If this wasn’t true we simply wouldn’t be here because we wouldn’t be supported on this planet any longer. 
• On an individual basis, there are more people we meet who are friendly and caring than there are who are mean and hurtful. I think most of us would become hermits and isolate ourselves from the world if everyone was mean the way so many of us make them out to be. Society is held together by the kindness and co-operation of others.
• For all the parents out there: there are more teenagers who come back home safely at night than there are who don’t. There are also more kids who experiment with drugs who don’t destroy their lives than there are who do. 
• To sum up these points I will simply say there are more times where things go right than there are where things go wrong. Once again, this is blatantly obvious. The fact we are living on this planet, the fact we are developing as a society, the fact that our bodies continue to operate pretty much flawlessly are all facts that provide evidence for things working out. If you’re reading this right now, more things are going right than there are going wrong. The fact is there are more moments in more people’s lives where things go right than there are where things go wrong.

Now, I know you may be thinking that there are things that go wrong and that I’m being overly optimistic in my views of the world. I’m not denying that there are negative occurrences in our world. However, I am saying that because we are so focused as a society on the relatively few things that are wrong we are blind to the vast evidence of things that are right. I believe we should be upholding and promoting what goes right more than what goes wrong, simply because it is easier to help the portions of society where the people experience more wrong than right when we are in a positive state rather than in a negative state. To put it another way, you cannot make yourself sick enough to help a sick person or poor enough to help a poor person. We must focus on what’s right so that we can help others see what’s right and how to make things right. We must find out why things go right rather than why things go wrong. We must study why healthy people remain healthy rather than why sick people get sick. We must focus on what we want rather than what we don’t want. To use an example, is it any wonder that doctors are some of the most sick people on the planet? They make themselves sick by focusing on sickness all day, everyday rather than focusing on health.

On a reality creation basis, knowing that state of being creates experience, isn’t it important to focus on what’s right so that our state of being creates more of what is right? To put it another way, we cannot perceive what we are not the state of being of. We have been completely blind to the wonders and joys around us because we have been so focused on the miseries. 

So, in summation of all this, I say be realistic. I’m not taking that away from anyone. However, be truly realistic and see the greater evidence of the beauty of the reality around us. See the positive aspects of our lives; there are so many of them if we choose to look at them. There are so many more reasons to feel good than there are to feel bad. Be optimistic because the stats support that optimism. Reality supports that optimism. It just depends on how realistic we want to be.