
Regardless of the capabilities of modern science, no scientist has yet uncovered the mysteries of consciousness. It extends to all parts of our bodies and beyond. If I think of India, I can close my eyes and immediately I am there in my mind. Our consciousness has the power manifest a great many things. From transforming our bodies and minds, to building great cities, and even scientific discoveries like air travel, medical discoveries, this computer I’m typing on and quantum physics.
By Robert Butler
I experienced a miracle today.
You can too. It is easier than you think. All you have to do is want it.
Let’s try an experiment. Sit down at a table, close your eyes and lay both hands flat on the table. Take a deep breath and when you are ready, lift your index finger of your left hand off the table. Open your eyes. Is it up? If so, you just witnessed a miracle!
How did that happen? A person with a background in biomechanics and neuroscience may be able to explain all the different processes that occurred from the time you had the thought and your finger lifted off the table. Neurons fired; dozens of nerves contracted muscles stemming all the way from your brain to your index finger. But you weren’t aware of all that. You simply willed it to be and, in a nanosecond, it happened!
How amazing is that? What to speak of the number of the neuro-biological processes involved in sitting down and playing a Beethoven piano sonata, or the complexity of composing and performing a symphony?
Regardless of the capabilities of modern science, no scientist has yet uncovered the mysteries of consciousness. It extends to all parts of our bodies and beyond. If I think of India, I can close my eyes and immediately I am there in my mind. Our consciousness has the power manifest a great many things. From transforming our bodies and minds, to building great cities, and even scientific discoveries like air travel, medical discoveries, this computer I’m typing on and quantum physics.
And it all starts with thought.
When we look around in nature, we see a perfect order and how the earth is exactly the right distance from the sun and moves around it in such a way that all life on earth is perfectly nourished. Trees shed their leaves every autumn, flowers blossom at the same time each spring, and every living being from the tiniest germ to the blue whale is getting the right kind and amount of food daily. Are these not miracles?
Science is getting a lot of attention these days with the production of vaccines and medications to try to eradicate a virus that quite possibly was engineered by science. Scientists can dissect things and explain how they work in microscopic detail, yet they have not been able to produce life in a laboratory without starting out with living tissue. Nature does it among millions of species of life, billions of times effortlessly, every single day.
Scientific exploration for the purposes of exploitation and manipulation causes a plethora of unintended consequences. Natural laws as they exist cannot be violated without unintended consequences. When we try to manipulate nature, we may get some short-term result, but at what cost? I am not proposing that we cease scientific study. It has great value as long as we realize that it does little to enhance our spiritual understanding unless it gives the source of life and consciousness the proper credit that is due and works in harmony with nature’s laws.
It was Albert Einstein who famously said, “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
There is a famous story about Sir Isaac Newton who had created a scale model of the solar system in his laboratory. It was ingenious, containing a hand crank and gears that revolved each planet in their own orbits around the sun, with their individual moons orbiting around their respective planets. One day an atheist friend of his came into the laboratory and began playing with it.
“This is remarkable!’ Exclaimed his friend. ‘Who built it?”
“No one.” replied Sir Isaac. It just appeared there”.
“No, really!” Insisted his friend.
“I’m serious.” Teased sir Isaac. “I just came in this morning, and there it was!”
The friend was now getting frustrated. Mr. Newton turned to him.
“You are so certain that the universe and its myriad of planets, stars and solar systems has no origin, but you cannot accept that this simple model came into existence without a creator?”
That Vedic literatures of ancient India contain many Puranas and Upanishads that are filled with descriptions of how the universe came into existence and how pure consciousness is the source of it all.
The conclusion of the greatest sages and rishis throughout history is that everything results from consciousness. And just as our own consciousness creates and controls the things we want to manifest in our lives, so does the Supreme Consciousness create and control all things in existence. Simply by willing.
Just as a fire introduces so many sparks into the atmosphere, each one with the qualities of that fire, capable of starting a smaller fire, so we are but sparks of that original fire. The difference is in quantity only.
For eons, mystic yogis have demonstrated the ability to manifest not just their minds but their bodies in different locales. They are capable of producing objects out of thin air. These kinds of things are what most people consider to be miracles. Yet, miracles surround us literally at every moment. That your eyes can see these words and process them into thoughts is a miracle. That your body follows your thoughts’ dictations is a miracle.
So the next time you lift a finger, contemplate the miracle you just co-created. We are all miracle makers, extensions of the Supreme miracle maker. No different from the mystics and yogis that came before us.
When we see the world through those eyes, we will see ourselves as miracles too.
Om Tat Sat.
Even as a child, Robert Butler was fascinated with the nature of consciousness. A practitioner of Bhakti Yoga and committed vegetarian since the age of 17, he embarked on a lifelong journey to help himself and others uncover the mysteries of life. After living in an ashram in his late teens through his mid 20s, he traveled extensively, and delved deeply into personal growth and healing work. For the past twenty-five years, he has run a San Diego based nonprofit that supports three Bhakti Yoga ashrams and sustainable farm communities: Audarya Ashram in Philo, California, Sarahgrahi near Asheville, North Carolina, and Madhuvan in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. He is an author, spiritual counselor and senior staffer with the ManKind Project, as well as a mentor with the Boys to Men Mentoring Network. He lives in Encinitas, California.
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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