from Letter Twenty “Appreciation”

With all the complex issues facing humanity now, and the push and pull from our egoic mind, I think it is important to slow down a bit and contemplate what it means to Appreciate. Not in the sense of giving and taking, but in the larger view of understanding our existence and appreciating from the core. We can change our destiny and become an enlightened species.

“You told me at the beginning that appreciation, more than
anything else, set you apart from humans. Why is that quality so
much more important than any others you might have named?”

I will answer this by way of summary. Appreciation is our core
connection with Source. It was yours too, in its incipient way. Even
mental analysis and reductionism were primitive forms of apprecia-
tion. Ego took the reigns in humans and used these functions to
bolster separation, even in the midst of the appreciative process.

We say appreciation is our most distinguishing characteristic,
because of the leap that evolution took in us. It returned individu-
ated awareness back to its one root, its undivided Source. Humans
had multitudes of roots, tendrils and tentacles, reaching every which
way. Vigilans have the same, with one important added distinction:
a taproot to Source. Our innate awareness of that connection, is truly
all that differentiates our two species. That taproot was the death of
ego.

We are no smarter or inventive than humans were. We are only
more appreciative, more connected to our foundational awareness.
That’s all. This means, of course, a whole host of things, as it plays
out. We have more compassion and inspiration, more trust and in-
tegration and sharing. All the beauty, joy, and unconditional open-
ness we experience owes to this taproot to Source.

Appreciative capacity is your destiny. With it, you will no longer
feel isolated in the Cosmos. You will open your direct channel to
creation and caring, born of the reality that lies within Source. The
reality of a caring and beneficent Source becomes obvious the more
you appreciate.

Ponder this: What universal creator would not thusly be con-
stituted? Only a self-destructive, egoistical one—made in human-
ity’s image—would be uncaring of its creations. But if that were the
universal case, such a creator would have long since destroyed you,
me, and itself. The guarantee of the beneficence of the Cosmos is
that we are still here now, in this moment, evolving consciously.

Bear in mind, however, that the Source is beneficent in its
unique, particular way—a way of complete allowing and free will.
This beneficence is not a human or vigilan form, not a personal or
incarnate sense of niceness! This divine caring is the truest from of
appreciation—for the entirety of creation itself, in all its destined
forms, good and bad, light and shadow, shallow and deep. Source is
the great giver, providing everything that exists—for better and for
worse. And it allows us to choose the way we will live within that.

Copyright © 2009 by Robert Potter
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