Everything and Nothing

"We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore One with Him.  And we rejoice that no exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness, nor impair or change our function to complete the One Who is HimSelf completion.  We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.  We have been given everything.  If we refuse to recognize it, we are not entitled therefore to our bitterness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 195, 6:1-3 & 9:2-3

"Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself.  Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, or every thought it judges worthy, and all ideas of which it is ashamed.  Hold onto nothing.  Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything.  Forget this world, forget this Course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 189, 7:1-5

I highlighted passages from the above quotes to make a point.  We have been given everything, literally... as Beings who live and move and have our Being in Oneness with the Infinite, everything is ours.  But to return to an awareness of the Everything that IS, we have to let go of the nothing that ISN'T. 

The easiest way to come to this awareness is to just be still.  Here I am.  I didn't create myself.  I am.  And so there is an 'I' that exists without effort, that is aware of what comes and goes, but never moves or changes in itSelf.  This 'I' holds everything in its awareness.  'I' have been given everything.  But as soon as the attention contracts to the specifics of thought, form, judgment, and analysis... as soon as the awareness zooms in and trys to grasp what it is aware of, the 'I' that is aware fades into the background, forgotten and seemingly obscured by the exclusiveness of individuated mind and its thoughts.  Only the unconditioned awareness of 'I' is capable of the inclusiveness that returns the awareness to the All, the Everything.

Allness is beyond the grasp of the individuated mind... the me that I think I am.  This me is preoccupied with survival and comfort, with being liked or loved, withdrawing into the safety of the familiar.  But resting in the Silence of 'I' for only an instant, the Inclusive Self returns to awareness.  Everything is Who I Am.  As they say in Advaita Vedanta, "I Am That."  And in the Bible it says, "I Am That I Am."  We have simply to be quiet and allow, "I Am" to rest in unspecific and unconditioned awareness.  And let the nothingness of daily thought and identity go.  What remains is the simple Truth of Being. 
 
"Nothing is so easy to recognize as Truth.  This is the only recognition that is immediate, clear, and natural." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section XI, 5:7-8