Sitting here filled with gratitude after the completion of the last weekend of the 6-month program of the Soul-Centered Series. Elsie Spittle was this month’s guest speaker. She was definitely the icing on an already very delicious cake. There was such a beautiful feeling of depth and peace that the group fell into over the course of the weekend.

The participants in the group were the heart of the program. I appreciate how generously and openly they contributed to the experience. I loved how much they appreciated the beingness of the series. There was nothing to do and nowhere to get to, just an opportunity to deepen in understanding. All of the transformations experienced flowed from there.

I am so grateful for the understanding of the Principles and how it points to the divine formless intelligence behind life and its interaction with the form of human experience. There are as many ways to point toward truth as there are people looking and the Principles understanding is a way that has deeply touched my heart.  

There are profound experiences in my life where I dropped out of thought and fell into an exquisite experience of unconditional love, some might call it a meditative or a non-dual state, and felt just oneness. These experiences are beautiful and profound, but I would see them as peak moments. They felt different and separate from my ordinary life. What the Principles understanding helps me to see is how we all naturally slip out of thought and into this state of presence and being. There is nothing special about it. It is our natural design.

The constant dance between formless and form is the continuous rebirth of experience moment-to-moment. Reality may look and feel seamless, but it is constantly being created.

As neuroscientist David Eagleman writes in The Brain: The Story of You:

“If you could perceive reality as it really is, you would be shocked by its colorless, odorless, tasteless silence. Outside your brain, there is just energy and matter. Over millions of years of evolution, the human brain has become adept at turning this energy and matter into a rich sensory experience of being in the world.”

Seeing that our experience is created internally, makes it easier to identify less with the form of what I see and experience. Recognizing that thoughts and concepts are created and dropped allows me to hold them more loosely. There is freedom in this. I have the image of a lego construction that is constantly being deconstructed and reconstructed again. Usually in the same way, but it doesn’t need to be. There are times when reality falls apart and reappears in a new way. Those are the times when I have an infusion of fresh thought and see something new.

We all arrive at a new perspective through realization. An example of this for me was recognizing that my husband Angus was suffering when he is angry. This had never occurred to me previously. I was so caught up in judging his behavior and feeling hurt. Then I had an insight and realized his behavior was a reflection of his suffering. This allowed me to see his behavior in a whole new way. As a result, I felt compassion instead of hurt. It was natural to love instead of judge. And, I could also see my capacity to behave in the same way. It was freeing and humbling.

Seeing that experience is created and getting a feeling for the innate potential and possibility behind the creation of experience is uplifting and liberating. Seeing reality is not fixed has me hold it more lightly, and in that lighter feeling, I have more openness to live in the not knowing and to embrace new perspectives.

This is so practical and down to earth. Seeing the power of thought and the nature of thought to change opens up possibilities for each one of us to not be defined by labels or misunderstandings about ourselves. We can let go of the inclinations to put ourselves in fixed boxes of: I am this or I am that, and instead, rest in the I amness of who we are.

As Elsie said this past weekend, come back to the simplicity of I am. That is enough. You are enough. Anything else is an add on that will come and go. Seeing the power we have to create what comes and goes is what allows us to be less consumed and compelled by our creations. It makes it easier for us to enjoy the creative power of who we are and be grateful for the fact that experience is created no matter what the content of that experience is.

Rohini Ross is passionate about helping people wake up to their full potential. She is a transformative coach, leadership consultant, a regular blogger for Thrive Global, and author of the short-read Marriage (The Soul-Centered Series Book 1) available on Amazon. You can get her free ebook Relationships here. Rohini currently has an international coaching and consulting practice based in Los Angeles helping individuals, couples, and professionals embrace all of who they are so they can experience greater levels of well-being, resiliency, and success. She is also the founder of The Soul-Centered Series: Psychology, Spirituality, and the Teachings of Sydney Banks. You can follow Rohini on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and watch her Vlogs with her husband. To learn more about her work go to her website, rohiniross.com.