I keep coming back to Letter Twenty “Appreciation.” For me it seems like the essence of all that is to come. It’s a simple thing. An awareness of all that blesses us. The beauty, the goodness, the loving; all the things we, as humans, take for granted. Become conscious in your heart and you will awake to the most precious thing we have been given.
I walked along the street today and noticed nobody’s looking, nobody’s seeing. ‘Observe’
I sat inside a restaurant today and noticed nobody’s hearing, nobody’s listening. ‘Give Attention’
I went inside my God today and noticed nobody’s yearning, nobody’s crying. ‘Surrender’
My God went inside me today and noticed ‘Gratitude.’
“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 appreciation. 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 individuated 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 integration and sharing. All the beauty, joy, and unconditional openness we experience owes to this taproot.
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 constituted? Only a self-destructive, egoistic one—made in humanity’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, 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 © 2010 by Robert Lee Potter
Letters From 500 