One in Essence, Numerous in Appearance

Peace and happiness are the nature of our being, which we share with everyone and everything. Reality appears as ten thousand things, but behind this appearance is a single, indivisible reality. When we say I am sixty-eight years old, I am cold or tired, we refer to ‘I am’, qualified temporarily by an always-changing age, feeling or state, while ‘I am’ remains constant. To say, ‘I am tired’ is to focus on the tiredness and overlook the ‘I am’. Initially, some effort is required to disentangle ourselves and trace our way back to our essential self. Eventually, we are simply abiding naturally in being, the essence of meditation or prayer. The background out of which all things emerge is the same unified field of being. No person is a self unto itself. Every apparent thing or person borrows its existence from God's infinite being. One in essence, numerous in appearance.