What and Where is Higher Power?
SUMMARY
“God is the life behind your life, the sight behind your eyes, the taste behind your tongue, and the love behind your life.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda
Key #6 – It’s All Higher Power.
As someone on the path I know that you understand that you are never without your Higher Power. But if you’re like me, some days that’s hard to believe. Some days it just feels like you’re all alone and nothing seems to be working for you. In my earlier email I spoke about how life (or Higher Power) is always working for you, not against you. Today I want to share a perspective on who or what Higher Power is, so that we can more easily identify its presence when we are feeling alone.
So who or what is Higher Power?
The answer is simple: Everyone and Everything.
It is the power behind the beauty, peace, order and chaos of nature.
It is the power behind the coincidence and good fortune of your life.
It is the power behind the smile of a child, or a loved one, or a stranger.
It is the power behind the eyes of every living being on this planet.
It is the power behind the laws of science, the orbiting planets, and the life-giving sun.
It is the power behind music, and creativity, and the arts.
It is the power behind the share that you needed to hear from someone else in the rooms.
It is the power behind your own consciousness and the essence of who you are.
It is the power behind prayer, and meditation and silence.
It is the power behind the challenges in your life that helped you become who you are today.
It is the Higher Power.
A brother shared with me that for him the rooms are his Higher Power. We’ve all heard this said in the rooms. Higher Power speaks to us through other people, because it is who they are, and who we are. All life, is Higher Power.
At times we may truly feel disconnected from Higher Power. And yet this can never be true. To be disconnected from Higher Power would be to be disconnected from the source of who we are. We simply would not exist. No, we are never without our Higher Power. We can often feel stuck and alone, but that is very different than truly being disconnected. Even when we forget about Higher Power, Higher Power does not forget about us, for it is the underlying presence of all of existence itself. So often we mistake Higher Power as something that is far off over there while we are over here. Nothing could be further than the truth.
Sir Alfred Tennyson articulates this concept beautifully when he describes Higher Power in the following way: “Closer is He than breathing; and nearer than hands and feet.”
The separation between ourselves and Higher Power is simply an illusion perpetuated by the separation of our physical bodies from others. In fact we are one spirit having a multitude of experiences through every living creature on this planet. One spirit having many experiences – this is the idea of Infinite Intelligence. The next time you feel alone and unsupported in the world, I encourage you to simply notice your breathing. Your creator gives you the gift of breath. You don’t have to remember to breath, it just happens for you. Place your hands over your chest and notice your heart beat.
You don’t have to do anything to keep your blood pumping, the gift of your heart does that for you. Notice next what else is happening in your life that is a sign of the Creator. Perhaps it’s a beautiful sky that you didn’t notice, or a soft breeze, or the sounds of nature.
When we take a moment to shift from the self-centered focus of loneliness and notice instead the small miracles that are always surrounding us, we reconnect with our Higher Power and ourselves.
Today’s Distinction
I am never alone nor am I separate from all of the things that I love and cherish in the world. I am always connected to and cared for by my Higher Power. In every challenge is learning. In every moment of solitude is the blessed opportunity to know myself more deeply. The illusion of loneliness is just that, a forgetting of the infinite presence of Higher Power around me and within me. Like all seasons, the season of loneliness shall come, but it will not come to stay, it will come to pass.
