Playing with the idea of the Cosmic to the Personal

Once, I believed the way to the stars was through the self. That if I could be enough, do enough, be loved enough, I might earn my place … I mistook reflection for radiance, validation for love, and the gaze of others for the light of the divine. The personal, when used as a ladder, only led me in circles, a maze of mirrors where I lost more than I found.

Now, I begin elsewhere.

Not with the self, but with the silence behind it. Not with the need to be seen, but with the seeing itself.
From the stillness of the cosmic, compassion arises, not as a feeling, but as a field. Not as a bond, but as a breeze that touches all and clings to none. To arrive at the personal, not by building it, but by letting it be shaped by something vaster.

Love, no longer a searchlight but a lantern lit from within and carried gently.

Personal experience, when rooted in the eternal, becomes tender, open, and free, no longer the path to the divine, it is the fruit of it.

A reflection the Web of Being. A work in progress

There is a sacred thread that runs through all things, a web not woven by human hands, but one in which we are delicately and inextricably intertwined. We are not the weavers, but the woven. Every thought, every action, every breath ripples through this vast tapestry of life, echoing back to us in ways seen and unseen. Smaller then small, bigger then big.

To live with awareness of this web is to awaken to the truth that nothing exists in isolation. The tree, the river, the wind, the stranger, we are all strands of the same whole. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. What we withhold from others, we deny within. And what we heal in ourselves, we offer to the world.

Time, as we know it, is a construct measured out by the rising and setting of the sun, by our clocks and our calendars. But beneath this rhythm lies something deeper: the eternal now. In this space beyond time, were love abides. Not the fleeting emotion, but the boundless presence that holds all things. Love not of time. Love the ground of being.

Stillness, not the absence of movement, but the source from which all movement arises. Silence not the absence of sound, but the womb of all language. Eternity not endless time, but the fullness of this moment. And in this still, silent, eternal now, we remember: We are not separate, We are not broken, We are not lost.

We are stillness.
We are silence.
We are love.
We are whole.

From this place of deep listening, we begin to see clearly. Not with the eyes of judgment or fear but with the eyes of the heart. We see what is ours to do. Not to fix the world as if it were broken, but to participate in its healing as an act of remembrance. This is the essence of tikkun olam: to restore the sacred web by living in harmony with it.

Let us return, again and again, to the still point within. Let us listen. Let us love. Let us live as if we belong because we do… and we are That.

Hi Alessa

I agree that desire is one of our strongest drives and a part of human nature and how a association of desire with suffering could suggest that such a human trait is undesirable. My understanding of the intention behind Buddhism is to avoid such labels as undesirable and instead become mindful of such human traits in human nature and the role they play. I feel it as something subtle, not denying human nature, but understanding it deeply and learning how to work skillfully with it. I feel that as a truth and my challenge has been to move beyond a intellectual understanding to a embodied realization.

I appreciate how Jung acknowledged the necessity of the first half of life in establishing a healthy ego and how level of socialization is necessary. Then in the second half of life the task of undoing.

My observation is that many in the second half of life continue to be driven to establish the ego and then project that back towards those in the first half of life socialization. Expecting the young to conform to the same ego-driven values, or judging them for not doing so. I think a part of that comes from a resistance to inner work as you can see in some if not all of our ‘leaders’ today. Perhaps because it threatens the identity that has been so carefully constructed. Desire for identity maybe the most difficult human trait to come to terms with skillfully or why the world cry’s out for leadership of a Gandhi or MLK.

Hummm.. I think I’m saying we need our Elders to do the work and stop resisting the call to ‘Self’ so they might project a balance between socialization and Being. I think you can see this tension in our political lives where we forget that different stages in life require different skills, instead expect everyone to be in the ‘same place’ they are.

And so: “Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life… we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning.” – Jung

To the subject of healing without need for change I deeply feel the need to acknowledge the work of therapies and such and ‘let them go’… mindfully noticing how I was getting stuck, therapy as another ego project?

Thanks for the kind words Anita.

I asked Copilot to elaborate on what the wisdom traditions have to say about Healing without the need to change.
The world is changing…

🕉️ Hinduism & Advaita Vedanta
Core Idea: The true self (Atman) is already perfect and one with Brahman (the ultimate reality).
Healing: Comes from realizing that suffering arises from ignorance (avidya) of our true nature.
No Need to Change: You don’t need to become someone else — you need to remember who you already are.

“You are not the body, you are not the mind. You are the eternal witness.”

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🧘 Buddhism
Core Idea: Suffering (dukkha) arises from attachment and aversion.
Healing: Is about seeing clearly, through mindfulness and insight, the impermanent and interconnected nature of all things.
No Need to Change: You don’t need to fix yourself — you need to wake up to the present moment.

“You are perfect just as you are. And you could use a little improvement.” — Shunryu Suzuki (Zen paradox) – Love that one.

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✡️ Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism)
Core Idea: The soul is a divine spark, temporarily obscured by layers of ego and illusion.
Healing: Is a return to alignment with the divine light (Ein Sof).
No Need to Change: The essence is already divine; healing is about revealing it.

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✝️ Christian Mysticism
Core Idea: The divine image (Imago Dei) is within every person.
Healing: Is about surrendering to grace and recognizing the presence of God within.
No Need to Change: You are already loved and whole in God’s eyes; healing is about receiving that love.

“Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

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☯️ Taoism
Core Idea: The Tao (the Way) flows through all things naturally.
Healing: Is about returning to harmony with the Tao, not forcing change.
No Need to Change: You are already part of the natural order; healing is about letting go and flowing.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” — Lao Tzu

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🌿 Indigenous Wisdom
Many Indigenous traditions emphasize balance, relationship, and belonging over individual transformation.
Healing is often seen as restoring harmony with the land, ancestors, and community—not changing the self, but reconnecting.

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Funny sad how similar the core beliefs humanity tries to live by ends but still end in conflict.

It’s important to me that I start to live what I say I learned. If I were to trust that I am already whole, how might I treat myself differently today?