By Alexander Bell

Just like fish exist in water, we exist in Truth. We are surrounded by it, immersed in it. But what exactly is Truth?

Conscious, Loving Intelligence.

Consider these words and these attributes for a moment…

Truth is the essence of reality. It is Reality. But why don’t we always perceive it? Are we afraid of it? Are we afraid of being totally transparent to this Conscious, Loving Intelligence?

Yes, many people are, and they hide from it. Where do they hide? In thought. They hide from the light of Reality in the shadows created by thoughts, by doubts. And even when the light of Truth is perceived, many people choose to return to doubt, return to thought, so that they simply do not have to face the light of Truth. But why, when Truth offers no threat to us whatsoever? Quite the opposite…

We have been taught collectively from a young age about a vengeful and punishing God that judges us, and this is embedded deep in our subconscious. We expect to be judged and punished at some point – perhaps on judgement day? But this is a complete fallacy, an untruth. Because what people call “God” is the Conscious, Loving Intelligence that is Truth, that is Reality. It is all encompassing Love. And love does not ever judge.

This luminous, loving intelligence is the living fabric which reality is made of. Awareness of the fabric, the luminous essence of reality brings us into a heavenly state. And that is all that is needed. Awareness.

There have been many wise teachers over the centuries who have taught us about Love, Peace, Truth and the ‘Divine Reality’ – the kingdom of heaven which exists within all of us, which is projected outwards creating the reality we perceive as being ‘external’.

Different as they may have been, all of these teachers had one thing in common; they were all looking in the same direction. They were all looking within and speaking of the reality they encountered there; a reality of peace, light, harmony and sanctity.

Were they “special” people? Were they perfect human beings? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we turn our attention to what they themselves were focusing upon, what they were speaking of and encouraging us to look towards – the light within, the realm of total peace and magnificence within our own heart. It is there within you, right now.

We are all perfectly able to see the same reality that these teachers saw, because it is not hidden. We are all capable of experiencing the same sense of union with a greater universal force that they experienced. It is fully available to us. So why do we not all experience it? 

Put simply, we choose not to look there. Instead we focus upon other things – our material desires, our material obligations, our thoughts. So many thoughts – about our self, about each other, about the world – about anything and everything! Thought is the greatest distraction in the universe, yet thought is virtually insubstantial – like the clouds in the sky – and the reality it creates is totally unreal. Even so, many human beings seem compelled to give all their attention to the thoughts that come into their mind.. Are you free to choose not to think if you wish?

This is why all the great teachers of the past have encouraged us to quieten our mind, so that we may become receptive to a more subtle, more real, and more illuminated reality – one that does not come from the mind. It is the reality of the heart. The illumination of consciousness which emanates from our heart comes from beyond the material world – it is a fully spiritual experience, but a totally natural and essential one. Without it, we would not be alive. 

The more we bring this awareness into our life, the more light we experience in our being, which we feel as happiness, joy, freedom. This is what makes the birds sing and the flowers bloom. The energy of joy, present in the very fabric of reality. Joy does not mean a state of excitement. It means a state of radiance, experienced as we fully allow our heart to shine. And why would we not?

Many people are afraid of letting their heart shine, because they fear ridicule, or they fear pain, hurt, or sorrow – things that in the past were experienced in connection to what should have been happy experiences. And so our desire to feel and express our happiness and joy gets supressed. Our heart’s desire to radiate happiness – like a flower radiates beauty – gets ignored.

The heart is like a beautiful rose, that needs the light of the Sun to enable it to open up its petals and radiate its beauty. Our heart simply needs our attention. When our heart does not have it, it begins to wither. Our attention becomes entangled in the realm of thought – a very poor substitute for the heart’s realm of peace and beauty – and in the process we simply create more tension and contraction in our heart. This is how we become afraid of life. We make life seem so threatening, when it is not remotely so. Quite the opposite in fact. It is deeply benevolent. 

So the good news is that all the heart needs – all that any heart needs – is for the Sun (our attention) to shine upon it once again and it will come back to life. Perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly, but it is guaranteed to happen. It is very important that this our focus: shining our attention on the realm of our heart, so that we can live a peaceful and fulfilled life. With our attention in this place, we will never forget what is real, we will never forget who we are, we will never be afraid of life. 

Self-knowledge (which is essentially full reacquaintance with the illuminated realm of our heart) fills us with a deep sense of trust and security. If there is no trust in our life, then we simply feel insecure. The less we trust, the more insecure we feel. Everyone knows this feeling of insecurity, but does everyone know the feeling of total security? It is what so many people are seeking for in their lives, without even knowing it. Every living creature needs to feel secure. It is so deeply primal that it influences everything we do, everything we say and everything we think. Once total security is realised – through knowing what is real and knowing our relationship with reality – happiness and joy are a natural consequence. We can only find our full freedom through finding total security, just like a tree’s deep roots allow it to reach out to the stars. Until we find our deep sense of inner security, we cannot do the same. 

So how can we feel totally secure in a world that seems to offer so much threat? We simply distance ourselves from that which creates the sense of insecurity. We free ourselves from the influences that feed anxiety and fear in our lives. There are many of these influences in our media-rich society, and they all feed our mental insecurity. We consume the information they present without even realising the degree to which they are spoiling and undermining our Peace and happiness.

Therefore we must nourish ourselves more consciously. We must allow ourselves to be nourished by more harmonious energies, such as that which we experience in nature, or through beautiful music. Our communications should focus on positivity, rather than negativity, inspiration rather than gossip. It is easy to do this, but it does require a little self-discipline. We are so used to negative input – from the media, from our communications, from unhealthy foods – that our mind has simply gotten used to thinking in negative ways. Our body responds with illness, malady and disease in various forms. 

The simple power to change this very common way of experiencing life is just a choice. We must simply be conscious to make positive choices in every area of our lives. For example, we decide that we will not speak negatively. We decide that we will not eat unhealthy food. We decide that we will not watch or listen to negative media. This is actually very easy to do, because there is a wonderful incentive and the consequences of doing so are most enjoyable. There is no greater incentive than more happiness in our being, more joy in our heart, more positivity in our mind, with fear and worry becoming a thing of the past – just an old habit that we allowed ourselves to get sucked into through our choices. 

We are totally free to experience the life that our heart longs for; a life of happiness, freedom and complete security, lived in the full light of of consciousness, rather than in the shadows of doubt, fear and uncertainty. Why on earth would we choose illusion over truth, when the Truth is everything that our heart desires, and so very much more…

>> Read Alex’s illuminating and life-changing new book: “HOW TO LIVE IN LOVE”

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