In the human body, between 50 and 70 billion cells die each day through a process called apoptosis.We don’t bemoan the loss of those cells because we experience their loss as part of a larger process that is the continuation of the life of our body. In the same way, we don’t get the impression that when a tree loses its leaves in the autumn it bemoans their loss. We know that the loss of its leaves is part of the life cycle of the tree. And the life cycle of the tree is part of the larger process of nature and the ecology in which the tree lives.

If you look around at Creation—both the manifest form of it and the process of it—what you see is something magnificent. You see the joy of Creation all around. You see something spectacular, which is the glory of Creation. Through it all, you don’t get the feeling that nature or all of Creation cares very much about any misery of the leaf falling from the tree. It doesn’t seem to care very much about the dying of billions of your cells, any more than you do.

To bring it a little closer to home, all of Creation doesn’t seem to care very much about the death of human beings or the misery of human beings. It seems far more interested in something else. And that something else is the ongoing evolution of all life, the ongoing evolution of Creation and what’s revealed in that larger picture. In the microcosm of a human life, that is why we are not caring about our own daily loss of cells. We are about a larger process, the glory of our own life. Those cells are all just part of a larger purpose, which is our life and the manifestation of the glory and the beauty of who we are as a human being—this Creation.

Does what I am saying, which seems to be a spiritual cliché, require us to go all philosophical and become somehow removed from our own life and look at it as if it didn’t matter? I don’t think so. If this truth really penetrates our awareness, and we really live out of this truth with an understanding of who we are relative to the process of Creation, there is great magic. The key to it all is understanding why it is happening.

So why is Creation happening? Whether we look at it from the standpoint of nature, the tree, and all the animals, all of nature here on this planet, or whether we look at it from the standpoint of the universal whole—everything that is going on in our solar system, in galaxies and beyond—why is it all happening? Or we could look closer to home and think about the human world and our own human life, and ask why?

I want to propose an answer, and it is a simple one. At first it may seem philosophical. What I am proposing is that the philosophy can become an actual experience.

Within all of Creation, there is Being. There is Universal Being within it all that is manifesting itself through the forms of Creation. And all of Creation is for the purpose of revealing the beauty and the glory of the Being that is manifesting. So if we call the manifest form Creation, the Being being manifested is the Creator. Within all of Being is the Creator. So at every level, from the atom to the galaxy, the Creator is present, and the power of the Creator is present; and the pattern and design of Creation is inherent in the Creator.

The power of the universe is within every atom—amazing power. We have managed to release it in horribly destructive ways. Nonetheless, there is amazing creative power within the atom. At every level of Creation, there is this power. It is true in the solar system. Centered in the sun, but not only in the sun, there is this amazing power. And not only within the atoms of our body but within our body as a whole, there is a furnace of creative power. So there is this power that is at work. It is the power of Being. The only reason for Creation is to use that power for the sheer joy of revealing the wonder of Being through the Creation.

This becomes very real when you bring it back to your own life and make it personal to you. When you ask yourself, “Who am I in relationship to my own life?” you might find an astonishing answer. You are the Creator, and your life is for the revelation of the beauty and the glory of you. Is this becoming more real? Your life is to reveal the beauty and the glory of who you are as a Being, and who you are as a Being is not disconnected from all of Being. So you are revealing your own beauty, but not as something separate from all of Being. Through your own life you have the opportunity to reveal the glory of Being, and then to have the supreme pleasure and enjoyment of the Creator in doing so.

Here is the simple, profound truth of my own life that I believe is also the truth for you. Your life is all about your joy, and it’s not really about anything else. And if you try to make it about anything else, you are going to be in misery. You can try to make your life be about that misery, in which case you’ll be more miserable.

I say that as a sixty-one-year-old, so I have sixty-one years of human experience, not counting any previous lifetimes, which I do not consciously remember. So you might say I’ve been around the block, and I understand that there are many things that happen in the human experience. Many of those things do contain an element of discomfort, pain, suffering or misery. If you want, I can match my misery up against yours. I think there is a chance that my misery will match up pretty well. And it is quite possible that I may lose the contest.

My point is simply that I understand there are many things that happen in the human experience that are unhappy. You might well ask, “Well, what about all that?” What I say is yes, those things are part of your experience and have been part of mine—and they are not the reason for my life. There is a huge difference between saying that you have experienced something and making your life about that experience.

The universe doesn’t seem to care that much about the misery of the falling leaf. Do you ever get the feeling that the universe doesn’t care too much about your misery? Here is what I believe the universe does care about: it cares about your joy. And there’s a big difference between trying to prevent misery and experiencing joy—a big difference. I don’t want to speak too ill of trying to prevent misery because I know there is wisdom in it. So I’m not that strange a person, and I am also not so ignorant as to walk into misery without any attempt to avoid it. But just because I have that kind of wisdom does not mean that my life is about avoiding misery. What I can promise you is that if you make your life about avoiding misery, it will lead to more misery. Avoiding misery is a far different thing from experiencing the joy of Creation—the joy of your Creation.

When a person tries to take credit for Creation as a mere human being, we call that arrogance. The truth is that we are an individualized aspect of Universal Being. We are the Creator. That is who we are. And when we know that that’s who we are, we can take credit for it all. Everything in our own life, all the beauty and the wonder of it, everything in all of Creation, we did it! We are doing it—we are creating it all.

The more your life is about Creation, the more you know that truth for yourself. The more you are living the joy of Creation and it is penetrating your human experience all the way through. Knowing this, you know that the joy of Creation is not being brought about by endless prayer, endless meditation, endless spiritual practice, at least not according to the usual understanding of those words. That knowing penetrates us the more our life is about being the Creator, the more it is about the joy of Creation, and the more that we eschew making our life about our misery—our misery or someone else’s.

This was the truth that I was presented with as a seventeen-year-old. It is a challenging truth. It was for me; I hope it’s challenging for you. I hope you are coming face-to-face with this truth, because within this truth is the reality of your own reality of Being. You are coming to know that by your very nature you are creating an experience, whatever that experience may be; and that as a Creator, you are responsible for your Creation. When a person makes their life about their misery, they are, by doing that, trying to dodge their responsibility for their experience and inevitably placing the cause of their experience on someone or something else.

I find, in assisting people to have a new experience, I offer kindness, compassion and generosity. I do that simply because it is my nature, and with the hope that they can feel the wonder and value of their own Being. As someone once said, we can help somebody prime their pump so that they can get a feel for what their life is like in truth, as a Creator. But in the end, it comes down to this hard truth: the person is creating their experience. And the universe doesn’t care that much about their misery. It cares about their joy, but not that much about their misery. And it is the person’s choice as to what their life is about.

That is the hard truth, but it is also the liberating truth, the truth that lets us be spiritually conscious. We create because we are conscious. That is how so many of our bodily processes are cared for—simply because you are conscious. Not because you figured them all out, but because you are present and conscious. Modern science is figuring out that we are wired so that when we are spiritually conscious, our whole body gets happy and functions well.

In the same way, when we become spiritually conscious our whole world starts to work. Consciousness is magical, particularly when it is the consciousness of the Creator. Through that consciousness, the power and the wonder of Creation begin to work. That is how we are made. As individuals and as humanity, we are the Creator. And when we are conscious of that as human beings and we are present, Creation occurs in wondrous ways. Just because we are present, Creation is happening, and we are playing our part.

That is the joy of Creation, in every moment, in everything. That is the opportunity we have before us. As we embrace that opportunity as spiritually conscious people around the globe, we are bringing that grand opportunity to the world. Yes, compassionate about the misery. But with great passion for the joy of Creation.