What is really important?

There is so much work to be done. And so many thoughts race through my mind when I begin to think about what is important and what I think I need to do. The work that sits before me is in layers and at the surface feels like a hammer shattering my peace into pieces.

At the surface are my day to day responsibilities and activities. Some of them have value in expressing a greater good and others are simply habit. Get up, start working, optimize web pages, analyze traffic logs, return emails, make a to do list for the day, clear out spam, review case inquiries, play voicemails, meetings, ideas, follow up with work that others are doing, and so on. The mundane, day to day work to make a living and support a family. Many of us have our own version of this routine. How much of our time do we dedicate to such tasks. And how do we integrate these activities with a greater calling.

How, if all of the above is approached with the right mindset, can it be made holy. All of that "mundane" - that too is an expression of the Endless and Infinite One. So I can not simply say - why bother with it. Is it not the battle field upon which I stand? Because to simply go about it without recognizing that the work too is an expression of God would be to ignore one part of the miriad display of The Infinite. No, that daily work is as holy as silent prayer, if I will allow it to be so.

But, judging as I do, I ask whether that is time well spent or time wasted away from a "truer" calling and exploration into a higher self, the infinite self. A taste for a higher calling exists. The call comes from within. And then, I judge that those daily activites have less value, as I consider others that perhaps I think could offer more value. What about exercise and good diet for the body, what about study of Holy texts, what about the study of Hebrew and the opportunity that provides to directly study Torah. What about the practice of Yoga and meditation and a gateway to experiences that are beyond the mundane and that can help make the mundane Holy as well. What about prayer?

So a frustration emerges. One in which for that moment I feel the world being contracted and imperfect and unfixable. Emotions run from way to way and the mind keeps searching for an answer. And then there is another layer and another layer.

What about the idea that the world is infinite. That its fundamental nature is infinite. What about the reality of that? That it is all One, and all is an expression of The Infinite One. That I am of, from, and within The Infinite One. If there is an infinity, and since I believe that the basic nature of all that is knowable, and known and unknown and unknowable is infinite, and I believe that matter, time and space are creations of The Infinite One, then I can consider infinity to be more than an idea -- rather, I experience it as it is, as infinite with possibility, potential, body, mind, life, spirit and soul. I move beyond my narrow experience and into the Infinite experience. And within, of, and from that Infinitiy comes a hope, an expansion, and perfection.

"We" is One

"We" is One, manifest as many, the many of One seeking to express and experience its infinite self.

Wave, Particle

I read Michelle's post from July 4 and it made me think, "Is the material world continuous and in flow, or is it a series of static states that are connected."

Like a movie, is life made up of frames, where we can observe each one if we choose? Is there a silence available to us in between each state? Even in a rushing and raging river? Even in the roar of the wind? Even in the dance of a flame? Are they continuous, leaving no room for stillness and silence within their movement?

In a movie, as it is played, we seem to see a continuous flow of movement and events. But in reality, our mind is simply filling in the gaps -- chattering away, interpreting, trying to make sense of what it has seen, and offering up its interpretation. But when we slow that movie down, when we bring it to a stop, we appreciate the trickery of our mind. That what we thought was non-stop and continuous was actually a series of freeze frame images, with a small gap or crease between each image. Our mind wants to believe that it is continuous, and tells us so... but it is not. In between each frame is an opportunity to be quiet and to observe that silence.

The movie is easy, but could I say the same for a river? It flows down toward the ocean. Perhaps it is the mighty Mississippi. Capable of discharging, as it did in August 1993, at a rate of 485 million gallons per minute or 1,080,000 cubic feet per second—a rate sufficient to fill Busch Stadium about every 65 seconds. But isn't that rush of water still only a series of frozen frames in time, observable each, each with a pause in between. Each frozen moment offering a built in opportunity to take a breath and just watch. I think so.

The question is not a new one. And the debate is not settled by science. Light has been observed to have dual qualities of wave and particle. "In physics and chemistry, wave–particle duality is the concept that all matter and energy exhibits both wave-like and particle-like properties. A central concept of quantum mechanics, duality addresses the inadequacy of classical concepts like "particle" and "wave" in fully describing the behaviour of small-scale objects. Various interpretations of quantum mechanics attempt to explain this ostensible paradox." (See Wikipedia for Wave–particle duality).

Perhaps our hearts are the continuity. Our soul, our observation, carries us between the frozen frames. The material world needs observers. Observe - watch over. Those who will keep things safe from above. We can remain out of the fray and revel in the gaps and folds of time standing still.