Life Unity

I was hoping to have the aesthetic changes done around the site by today.  You'll notice some changes, but they aren't permanent.  Please forgive the construction...and enjoy the much-more-permanent message.

Everything is energy.

Life Unity is about awareness & exploration

of this energy.

I have stepped into my own acceptance of this and am excited to share and continue the process with you.

This site has evolved from a more personal, journal-type blog - to explorations of yoga, photography, philosophy, running, and art - and now to what you see before you.

While I have often touched upon these deeper ideas, I have shied away from full exploration / incorporation of them.  I wanted (and still want) to focus more on the practice, the mundane implementation of "energy" (i.e. what it means in terms of laundry, bills, health, parenting, yoga, art, etc.) than on philosophical discussion.  In an effort to do this, however, I fear I have gone too far away from the messages and too focused on the tools used to share them.  In so doing, I have cheated both of us out of the vitality the tools can provide.

Please read on.... 

What is "energy"?

Don't let the term throw you.  I often think of energy in more of a spiritual sense - a pervasive field.  I am basically celebrating the magical wonder and ultimate un-know-ability of it.  (Yes, I'm creating words.)  I also understand it in a very physical sense - of atoms and sub-atomic particles.  You can conceptualize it either way.  It's the same thing. 

It is simultaneously omni-present and non-existent.  (We create the language and thus the concept simply to have a way to understand and thus exist with it.)

Energy is reality.  

This energy is.  There is nothing that it is not.  It is chaotic unity.

Like other spiritual ideas, it cannot be logically understood.  It must be experienced.

If this doesn't quite make sense, that's ok.  A willingness to step into nonsense is all that is needed right now.

How do we exist with this energy?

I see life as an exploration of this energy.  We are energy experiencing itself.

As such, there is no right or wrong way to explore, create, or exist.

That being said, I believe we all feel "called" to exist, explore, & play in a certain manner.  (What some refer to, appropriately, as our unique "calling".)  Likewise, I believe we all feel an innate aversion to certain actions - like murder and rape.  

I do not know the cause of this.  Perhaps it is the energy pulling itself in natural tendencies, as a positive magnet is attracted to a negative magnet, or as water is repelled from oil.  Right now I'm not concerned with the reason.  The reason is something interesting to discuss, but in practice it is simply the acknowledgement that these "callings" and aversions exist that matters.

We are energy that impresses upon itself, like a fingerprint impresses upon clay.  In some ways, this means a thought has the same potential to influence energetic flow as an action.  This will be important to remember.

We can experience this energy & effect it only in the time and space we call right here and right now.  This exact combination of energy (mental attention, awareness, physical sensations, time, space, & environment) is our understanding, our reality.  The past and future are only forms of thought energy.  They can influence the current (here/now) flow of energy, but the "past" and "future" do not technically exist.  Here and now is all we are.

Energy "Tools"

Yoga, art, storytelling, dance, scientific research, conversation (and of course, so much more) - all forms of being present and engaging with energy.  They are ways of being in the world, interacting with one another and ourselves, exploring our bodies and our environments, and expressing what we are experiencing.  These "tools" are ways we use to conceptualize the constant flow.

Breath is one of the most fascinating interactions of the energy field I've experienced.  It is flow.  It repeatedly exists and pauses out of existence.  It provides our physical energy bodies with an immediate, present experience of energy transformation.  It is also a manifestation (a sign) of the energy that is being exchanged.

(I will expand on this later, but all of these tools become important in bringing this philosophical concept of energy into mundane understanding and experience.)

The impossible is possible (even if improbable)

The interaction of energy is what we call reality, life.  Though we cannot understand it intellectually, everything is possible.  Some things are more probable (i.e. likely to happen) - like gravity or your child screaming the moment you answer the phone - but everything is possible.

If you recall, here and now is all we are.  This means that what was considered impossible even a minute ago has no bearing on what is possible right now.  Again, something important to remember.

So what does this mean for you?

This is only applicable to you if you want it to be.  Your reality is what you make it.  If you are aware of something stirring inside as you read this, pay attention.  Otherwise, be aware of where you feel called to go...and go.  Best of wishes on wherever your journey takes you.

It all begins with awareness.

Once you become aware of something more, that life may not be as it seems, that perhaps all is energy, that perhaps you are energy....

This is where Our journey begins. 

What does this mean for this site?

I have already been heading somewhat in the direction I describe.  But now it is clearly spelled out for anyone who wasn't sure where this was going.

If you are still reading, I will assume that we are on the same journey.  It doesn't matter if you fully understand it yet.  That you are open to exploring life as energy is all that matters.

I will continue to discuss yoga, to create and share paintings and art that express the ideas I am experiencing.  I'll talk about running and laundry and the kids.  There will be posts and videos and probably classes and such.  But there will be no more shying away from the discussions of how these seemingly mundane things relate to the more philosophical ideas of this unified energy. 

We are here to take this vague concept of energy and play with it in a very mundane way.  To weave it through walking, driving, meditating, painting, running, talking, moving, and yes, laundry.

We're not here just to chit-chat about all of this either.  While sharing stories is vital to a conceptual understanding, I feel called to encourage myself and you to experience.  To explore.  To see and be life from different perspectives.

You may notice more Buddhist concepts woven throughout the site as well.  The further I get into my understanding of life, the more Buddhism as a practice seems to just make sense.  I am, of course, welcoming of people and discussions from all backgrounds and beliefs - please don't take this as an exclusionary practice.

So now what?

Ah, isn't that always the question.

Now, we are here.  That is all.

Remembering that, I ask that if this resonates with you to please comment.  Let me know you are on this journey with me.  Let me know if there is something in particular you want to see discussed.  Let me know if you have something you want to share or already have at your site - I am making this a community effort and will be having guest posts and linking to other sites that offer their own wisdom.

(Feel free to leave a comment here or email me (lifeunity at gmail dot com) if you are interested in participating in this discussion through a post on your own site or a guest post here.)

Here's to you.

Here's to the journey.

Here's to the energy and the awareness of it all.

Namaste.