The Center of the Universe is Right Here

As we gear up for our upcoming Spring retreat, we are examining the theme of “returning to center” and what it means. Beth Sanchez is special guest on our blog today and will be co-teaching the retreat. Let us know what you think about the notion of returning to center and self reflection. And thank you to Beth for her thoughts and commentary below.

For me, I go in and out of seeing, knowing, feeling, believing, and abiding in the deeply inter-connected Universe. – Beth Sanchez

Indra is an ancient Vedic Diety, a God-King and administrator. His net forms the very fabric of creation. At every cross point in the net, there is a jewel reflecting all other points across space and time. Everything in the mutually causal web is connected to, reflects, and is accessible through all points in the web. One incredibly close microcosm of this principle is right here in our own bodies, as this image of firing neurons suggests.

This ancient understanding is both old and new. Inter-connectivity, Inter-Being, Dependent Co-Arising, all things being related and depending on the existence of all other things to manifest; these are the truth claims of Indigenous humans everywhere and appear throughout Buddhist and Hindu thought as well as many other philosophies. In the book of Romans, Paul says “So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others”. The Zulu concept of Ubuntu refers to the deep relationality of human subjects offering each other humanity and existence.

From the Rig Veda to Parmenides, to Einstein and countless (m)others, the myth of separate self-ness has been dispelled innumerable times. Yet, the delusion of separate self-entities persists. The felt experiences of separation, alienation, pain and their emergent forms of structural violence toward the (ultimately nonexistent) “other”, defy our deepest knowing.

The experiences of unified awe or divisive pain either draws us toward fulfillment or away from it. Can it be that our access point to the heart of the Universe, to what seems to evade us, to the deepest satisfaction possible is right where we are? Can it be that what we most deeply long for is hidden right here in plain sight? Can it further be that returning to the center happens easily when we practice together with our relations who have the same hunch?

Stop right now, drop into your vast being in one single slow breath. IN……..(gap), OUT……..(gap).

Isn’t it a marvel?

If that small taste intrigues you, PRACTICE TOGETHER WITH DEAR ONES who share the same hunch. For me, I go in and out of seeing, knowing, feeling, believing, and abiding in the deeply inter-connected Universe. I know that in my own habitual self-ing, other-ing also arises and is part of multiple socio-political-economic systems in which I live. I am not yet fully established in this knowing. In fact, I only get glimpses; the kind that have “ruined” an otherwise promising conventional life. Yet these glimpses are undeniable and overwhelming and they happen more reliably WHEN I AM WITH YOU! Yes, I need the help of your presence and relationality. I hope you can relate!

Let us be here together, in the very center of the practice-hood, the center of sushumna, the center of the enzo, the center of our circle of friends, the center of our Self, the center of our home, the center of the Universe, that most holy place which is right here and right now. The portals are already open.

Beth
Beth Sanchez