The mature conch is now a warm white. The crusty brown of its earlier years has been worn away with time, revealing the smooth, glossy surface that lies beneath.
A gash at her crown is evidence of the meat that has been extracted, leaving only the shell, which represents life, but is not life itself.
In the same way, our bodies are simply shells holding that which we truly are, a piece of clothing to be discarded upon death. Thus the meat, having been extracted, has left a void in its core, leaving room for a higher level of existence.
The shell rises above the sea, with its constantly changing moods. A storm is far off in the distance. Its coming or going is of no matter, for just as we can depend on the weather to change, so too can we depend on our earthly existence to be in a constant state of flux.
Yet far beyond earthly pleasure and pain there exists an eternal peace. Watching our minds and learning to witness the constant stream of thought, the temporary pleasures, the anxieties and fears, the sorrows of the past and hopes of the future, we realize we are not our thoughts any more than we are our bodies. In dis-identifying with our physical form and our minds, we leave a void where we are able to come in contact with our true essence. “Deny Thyself” as Jesus once said. In letting go of the illusions of who we think we are, the labels and goals, our hopes for the future and the bemoaning of the past; we find ourselves living in a timeless present and it is there, in this “void,” that we come in contact with the essence of who we truly are. For we are far more than what our minds tell us we are and we must realize the world can never truly fulfill us.
We are timeless Beings participating in an infinite universe, where there exists a Divine Consciousness of which we are a part. It is there we find fulfillment and peace. The joy that “surpasses all understanding.”
Yet access to this Universal Consciousness can only be found in the present.
In learning to dis-identify with our thoughts and use our minds only as the valuable tools for which they were designed, we can quiet our minds enough to remain in the only true reality, the here and now.
Sorrow can polish our crusty surface to reveal the purity, which is our true nature.
Just as the outer crust of the shell has been worn away from the harshness of life revealing the glossy white that lies beneath, so too can we choose to liberate our minds from suffering and live a life united with this Consciousness, reflecting the white light of Love that is our true Being, through our every thought, word and deed.
We can rise above the changing nature of life, existing in a dual state of participation within the physical world and a life in complete union with The Divine.
Love, God, Universal Consciousness…Being.
A state glimpsed by many but sustained by very few.