“The one who sees the highest lord, abiding alike in all beings, not dying even as they die, that one truly sees” (stanza 27, discourse 13 of The Bhagavad Gita).
Most Christians believe that those who follow Christ have some indwelling of the Divine in them, and this presence is what we call “the Holy Spirit.” In preparation for the coming of that Holy Spirit, Jesus told his disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12-13).
This is our final unity with the Divine: we raise our hands on a cold Wednesday evening at youth group and a wind comes down from heaven. It fills our little church with a big presence and tongues of fire lick the frightened crowd. We feel a sudden fullness within and thus look without; we go forth to speak the Truth in hard words, words that sound suspiciously like the tongues of angels. For the first time, we feel within ourselves a Power, and become as thirsty as the deer after streams of water (Psalm 42:1).
But then we start going to parties, and we’re too tired on Sundays to wake up and sit through a sermon that's far too tailored to fit the men and women in the pews. We look back at our Pentecost and wonder if the tongues of fire truly rested upon our heads, or was it only the fluorescent lights of the ceiling. We wonder if we waited long enough in the city, or if the Spirit of truth had ever led us somewhere meaningful, or if, worst of all, the truth had departed from us somewhere in our past. This is the state of people I've seen everywhere.
Wake up! We have become a valley of dry bones and require now, more than ever, breath. We require the breath of God – the breath of Life – that exists within but we have lost sight of it in the wake of myriad circumstances, sermons and substances. We still thirst, but we look in the wrong place. God has so much to say, but we cannot bear it now.
“The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying of the soul… let us not rove… Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions, by a simple declaration of the divine fact… for God is here within” (from Emerson’s Self-Reliance).
Breathe your breath and speak your Truth. We have too long looked without for that which has always been within. Our temple has always been full. Our soul must “put itself in communication with the internal ocean,” but instead it “goes abroad to beg a cup of water at the urns of other men” (from Emerson’s Self-Reliance).
It is only when we perceive the divinity that exists, and has always existed, within ourselves that we can see the “highest lord abiding alike in all beings” (from The Bhagavad Gita). Look in the mirror and see the image of God; look out your window and see the image of God… and breathe.
