“What we are looking for is what is looking.”   St. Francis of Assisi

“He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.”   Lao-tzu

Ramana Maharshi, a great Yoga teacher, used to say that to attain inner freedom we must continuously and sincerely ask the question “Who am I?” The Yoga teachers that followed continued this practice. We sit and we ask this one question while we meditate. “Who am I? Who sees when I see? Who hears when I hear? Who knows that I am aware? Who am I?”

In the third dimension, when someone asks us who we are, we usually say something like this: My name is Monica Hemstock and I was born in South Porcupine, Ontario, but I have lived quite a few different places. I began training to become a Registered Nurse at the age of 17 at Credit Valley School of Nursing…

Of course, as everyone reading this realizes, none of the above answers the question “Who am I?” What it does answer is a few of my experiences and the label that I was born with, Monica Hemstock.

So, can you remember as a child looking into a mirror? Any mirror at any age as a kid will do for our purposes. I will do this with you. The age I am is six and I have a six year old face and a six year old body. When I look in the mirror today as I write this I see a mature face and a mature body. What I am looking at has changed, however, the one who is looking has not. There is a continuity of being. Some people call this “the witness” but there are a myriad of names for the one who is aware of being aware. This is the one who remembers her/his dreams and is having all the experiences. You are the one, yes you currently occupying a physical body, who is inside looking out. And, even if there are no objects to see or no mirror to reflect you, you are the one experiencing inside that body.

We know from deep meditation that even when our thoughts cease, we are still aware of our existence. Therefore, we do not say as the famous philosopher, Descartes, did, “I think, therefore I am.” I am changing it to I am, therefore I am. The place of quiet stillness, peace and harmony.

Even when we say to someone “my mind is driving me crazy” we know we are not our mind, we are not our thoughts, we are the I am who is aware of our thoughts and is aware of our mind. This one is called, by some, the “I am presence.” We do exist when we have thoughts, and we also exist when we do not.

When we go deep, as we all do on our Path, we dis-cover that we live in the seat of consciousness. When we go even deeper we realize that this is where we have always been. In every way, this realization is where the journey toward 5D really begins.

When we go deeper we realize that we cannot fix our inner problems by getting better at playing 3D external games. This is because once we solve one external problem another will emerge. This is because we have been operating with a mind full of old 3D beliefs and fears. And, our mind will always tell us that we have to change something external to ourselves when the fact is that no external changes are going to change our problems because they do not go to the roots of our problems.

So, to get to the root of our problems we look in the mirror made by the events and experiences of our lives. With courage we learn not to be afraid of inner pain and disturbance because if we are afraid of it we will try to protect ourselves from it. In any case, we cannot go around fearing everything if we want to expand and explore. When we close down we build an entire foundation in our mind to keep our energy closed. So, instead of this – we open up and allow things to pass through us after first feeling the emotions (energy in motion) whatever they may be. We do the opposite of contracting and becoming smaller. We expand and become larger. We use our painful insights and our painful experiences to open us up because we wish to be free.

This deep spiritual inner work is the path to freedom. We dis-cover that behind our pain and fear is a vast ocean of Love. However, we must bravely go into our pain and through it to come out on the other side as part of the spiritual warrior’s journey to enlightenment. When we pass through the many conditioned layers of reality and beyond the final layer of pain and darkness we find “the pearl of great price.”

The mirror created by the events in our lives represents the powerful force of the Law of Attraction reminding us that we are what we attract. This in no way means we need to blame ourselves for inviting transgressions nor should we blame ourselves if we find ourselves victim to something like a war – which is a big-picture occurrence. That would be distorting the Law of Attraction because the Law leaves space for events fated to test our faith.

We look in the mirror as an attempt at a thorough and completely honest self-appraisal. Then, we honour every part of our personal story as crucial to becoming our best Self. This reflection is examined while releasing all judgment and accepting things exactly as they are, with love.

This is the Path to Unity Consciousness. As we let go of the past, after a thorough examination in our rooms of mirrors, we begin to identify more and more with the Flow of pure Source Energy.

Love & Light,   Monica