The ALL of the Matter

By Derek Ayre

Is it not written that God is All? Is He omnipresent and omniscient? Did He say "I am that I am"? So what can this mean? What is the I-am-ness? I see it this way.

I am is "Being-ness" Also not forgetting that I am also refers to Me. Or does it?

I am = Being = All Present.

So...... the I am of a situation is that I am All things. If God is Everything, it is me, you, houses, cars, fields. In fact it is literally all there is. The above statement is absolute otherwise it would not be omnipresent. (all present). It is also omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing). All this adds up to mean Everything. So when I look at me (I am consciousness),  I cannot exclude myself from the All. Therefore I am part of the All? Or am I all of the All? Seeing that I can only experience what I experience, this experience is my all. You (another person) are part of my experience so you are I. So here manifest the Zen truth called at-one-ment. Therefore...

I am = Being =  All Present, which has to mean also All Powerful. All powerful is without limitation.
 

Many of us have doubts. Lack confidence and disbelieve and mistrust what the great teachers have said throughout time. We were urged to trust and believe the words of these enlightened beings. But in a way, that is all right. If we cast our minds back to the word omnipresent, when we doubt and disbelieve, that very doubt and disbelief is present as part of the All Present and is all powerful at that moment of existence... How can total belief exist if disbelief (its opposite) did not exist? How can we know certainty, if we had never known uncertainty? Confidence without lack of confidence? So it all comes back again to omnipresence which it the same as omniscient and omnipotent. Really, these three words have the same meaning. Semantically. But the meaning can only become experiential if we are aware of this great contradiction.

Can I be aware of my omnipresence? That I am you, the trees, the houses, the cars, the fields, the planet, the universe? I may get a glimpse of this awareness if I was to contemplate the following.

If I am omnipresent. I am all. I am you. You are I. But, if I am you and I injure you in some way, I am really injuring myself. But why? How? I don't feel anything! The most I would feel would be guilt... But that would be with my finite mind.

Now, this is a point where the whole 'I-am-All' premise falls flat on its face. But wait a minute. Because of the very fact that I am omnipresent, the non-feeling of the pain I inflict on you is part of all there is! What a cosmic joke! In order to feel, and know that we feel, there must be the 'space' of non-feeling in which feeling can exist!

There is no escaping the omnipresent because it includes all there is. Feeling what we inflict on others can only be there to the degree that we do not feel what we inflict on others. The truth can only be the truth to the degree that lies exist - and that's the truth. Or it is?

This whole  subject is an unreasonable paradox. That is the way I see it. Don't believe a word you are reading. See your truth for yourself. Your interpretation of these words are just that. It is quite possibly different to mine. But difference is part of the omnipresent too!

© Copyright 2000. Derek Ayre. All Rights Reserved.

Derek Ayre is a registered hypnotherapist and practitioner of Zen. He has an ability to assist others on their path to greater self fulfillment and realization of their true potential.

www.ayrehypnotherapy.com

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