JAI ON EARTH Discovering Our Planet

The Greatest Secret by Rhonda Byrne

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
-Juliana of Norwich

“You know, all mystics- Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion-are unanimous on one thing; that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.”

Anthony de Mello, S.J., from Awareness: Conversations with the Masters
You might be thinking, how can everything be well when we look out into the world and see violence, wars, poverty, and destruction? People are fighting each other, attacking each other, arguing with each other, criticizing each other, and threatening each other, causing suffering across the planet.
But despite our turbulent history, when others were asked how everything can possibly be well, they would answer with: “Because the world is an illusion.”

THE GREATEST SECRET

What they mean by that is that the world is not what it appears to be.
The world as we believe it to be solid and concrete, out there existing separately from us, the only reality-is an illusion.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that the universe is the merest illusion.”

Ramana Maharshi, from The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi

We know from science that anything physical is mostly space; that the colors we see are actually the absence of those very colors; and the sounds we hear are really a vibration that our brain interprets into sounds through nerve signals. And we know that of all the mass of the Universe, only 0.005 percent makes up the electromagnetic spectrum, and what’s more, human beings can only perceive a fraction of that percentage. So, is the world really what it appears to be?

“Well, I look at the Empire State Building, you look at it, it looks probably the same to you and me, but what does it look like to an • insect with 100 eyes? What does it look like to a snake that can only sense infrared? What does it look like to a bat that only knows the echo of ultrasound? So, the Empire State Building— the look of it—is a human look, it’s not a crocodile look, and you can’t assume the human sensory apparatus with its narrow bandwidth of experience is the only reality. Furthermore, you can’t explain why the Empire State Building looks like what it is looking like if only photons are coming to your eyes.” -Deepak Chopra, M.D., from mindbodygreen podcast

When we investigate what we have assumed to be reality, we discover that our assumptions are not the facts we thought they were.

THE WORLD: ALL IS WELL

“Science starts with the assumption that the physical world is real, and that matter is real. Now, why that’s a problem is, if you’re a scientist, what is matter made of? They’ll say, well, it’s made of molecules. What are particles made of? Then we get into situations of smaller are molecules made of? Atoms. What are atoms made of? Particles. As particles they’re waves of probability in mathematical space.”

-Deepak Chopra M.D., from mindbodygreen podcast

These waves of probability are not a material thing at all. They’re just emptiness, and they only show up as particles when they’re measured and observed by the mind!

“When you turn from one room to the next-when your animal senses no longer perceive the sounds of the dishwasher, the ticking clock, the smell of a chicken roasting the kitchen and all its seemingly discrete bits dissolve into nothingness, or into waves of probability.” -Robert Lanza, M.D.

With a lineage dating back to the fourteenth century, the Rose Cross Order describes the material world as nothing but “mental phan-toms,” and most certainly quantum physics confirms what the ancient traditions knew to be the truth.

When I first looked into quantum physics years ago, the research I read said that the room I am sitting in doesn’t exist when I walk out of it because the room and everything in it falls back into a wave of probability when not observed. The room only reforms into particles of something solid when I walk back into it and I observe it. I used to have fun turning to walk out of the room and spinning around quickly to try and catch the room coming back into form. Not a chance!

“Awareness is what we are. You didn’t come to save the world —you came to love the world.” -Anthony de Mello, S.J.

“You want the world to be different. Let us assume that you were given the power to erase the world as it is and reconstruct it as you would like it to be: no wars, no tyrants, no mosquitoes, no cancer, no pain, and everybody smiles. You would end up with something that is very boring, something with no flavor. Then you start adding a bit of salt and pepper, and at the end, you would be back where you started, having realized that it was perfect the way it was!” -Erancis Lucille, from The Perfume of Silence

While we remain attached to our own beliefs and the belief that we are separate individuals, the world will never be at peace. Billions of egos will always create strife because egos are unstable they will never agree. But Awareness allows for all of it. Awareness allows for the illu-sion, the false beliefs, the lack of peace, the strife, the suffering, and the wars, because only love allows everything to exist. Your freedom from any suffering doesn’t depend on the world coming to peace, but depends on your seeing that you have mistaken yourself for only a person, and on your experiencing yourself as the one and only Infinite Being.

“The infinite Being isn’t concerned about calamity in the world as it’s never affected by any of those things.”-David Bingham

“When you see the world as you, it will look entirely different from what it looked like when it appeared separate. You will love and identify with it and everyone in it.” -Lester Levenson, from Happiness Is Free, volumes 1-5

THE WORLD: ALL IS WELL

Awareness says “Yes” to absolutely everything. Awareness allows for the freedom of everything to be the way it is, because the world and everything in it is Awareness-its own self, our own self. That means there can be nothing to oppose us. No calamity can befall us. No atomic bombs or meteors can destroy us. No lack or limitation can possibly affect us. Because when you boil it right down, all of it is us. And when you have realized your true self, and you are resting as that Awareness, you will know: No matter how things appear in the world, all is always, always well.