“Being is not your moods or your emotions. Being is what it is. And you discover that when you are present.”From Deshojando el Corazón de la Eternidad
What are feelings and emotions? The Spanish word for feeling, sentimiento, shows it: sentí-miento, “I felt, I lie.” There is something of a lie in that. They are only energy in motion, not something solid in essence.
And the same happens with thoughts, as the word for thought, pensa-miento, shows: they too are energy in motion, in a very subtle, quiet expression of low density. They have no reality of their own; they have no essence.
Energy in motion
Your body and your thoughts are energy moving in Consciousness. And suffering is only your energy in a very dense state of vibration: that is why the greater the density, the greater the rigidity.
All the suffering we generate comes from the mind. Pain is real, and the feelings that arise are encoded in its programming, making you believe that life itself is creating the suffering.
The truth is that there are no others. There is no world out there, independent and separate from an inner world: the universe outside and the one inside are one and the same. That is why I invite you to look at what you feel, without judging it.
An exercise in looking
Let me suggest a simple exercise. It is best if someone else reads it to you slowly, so that all you have to do is look through the wonderful light of your Being.
Sit or lie down comfortably. Breathe gently and, as you breathe, imagine that you are drawing light into yourself, with the quality of peace and tranquility. Breathe in peace and tranquility, and breathe out stress. Let your psyche, that is, your thoughts and your emotions, calm down first.
Do not forget that you are light, love and serenity. You are the city, the streets, the people, the cars, the traffic jams that stress you so much; you are also the mountains, the stars twinkling in the sky, the falling rain and the mist that crowns the brow of the cold afternoon. You are everything.
Bring your attention to your body. Move through it from head to toe, slowly, feeling each area with the gentleness of a child, as if you were a fragment of sacred earth, brought to life by the eternal light of all the suns in the universe. If some sensation asks for your attention, acknowledge it. Let go. Release every feeling, emotion or thought that comes to you.
Feel your heart and see whether there is any particular feeling there. Do not judge anything, do not think anything; simply let everything happen. Then observe your thoughts and recognize their quality, the way you choose flowers in a garden to carry to your most sacred place. Do not follow them or chase them: it is all energy in motion.
Now become very aware of the feeling of separation, that contraction that makes you feel separate from others, from things and from the universe. Remember your name. That name is the glue of your whole psyche and your personality: with it, the idea of a separate individual gradually takes shape. Let your mind, your emotion, your energy and your body be seen as a film projected on a screen, and let the feeling of separation dissolve in the light of the simple act of observing.
Rest in the sense of life, which is consciousness itself. Take a moment to rest from yourself.
Someone else’s suit
Now imagine that a loved one is with you in the room, someone you think you know. Imagine that you can take off your psyche as if it were a suit, and put on that person’s psyche as if it were another suit.
Allow yourself to be that other person. Do not try to carry your experience into that psyche: be that person. Do not judge, do not think, do not try to impose your ideas or your way of seeing life. Let everything flow gently, like a feather falling on the wind.
What does it feel like to be in that body, to think the way that person thinks? Feel their way of reacting emotionally, their traumas and their pain, their desires and their ambitions. Be that person at this point of consciousness, here and now, in this eternity that blooms for you like a night rose of starry, golden colors.
Now take off that person’s suit and put on your own. Perhaps it feels familiar. Do not identify with it: just be aware of that suit, so pleasant to you. Take it off, put the other person’s on again without identifying with it, and put yours back on.
And now let me ask you a very simple question: how many beings are there? There is only one Being. They are not two that are equal, nor two that are alike, nor two that are joined: they are only one and the same, unity in diversity. There are no others different from what I Am, here and now, eternally.
That which is aware
Emotions will keep coming and going, just as thoughts come and go. What changes is that now you know what they are, and you know who is watching them.
In my books I share a few words as a reminder: “I Am the one aware of every thought. I Am the one aware of every feeling.” They are an invitation to reflect, a call to make us more aware. They are not born of your psyche: they flow from that corner where the heart of pure consciousness lives, from your true essence.
This is not about repeating them like a mantra, but about letting them sprout spontaneously in your heart. After you say them, stop for a second, remain silent and feel the meaning of each word.
The next time an emotion arrives, do not reject it or lose yourself in it. Watch it pass. And rest in that which watches it, which is still here once it has gone.
From Dr. Zuluan Orion's books: Deshojando el Corazón de la Eternidad · El refugio del corazón · Devoción · Illumination