It seems simple, almost like nothing. Be here now. And yet, being fully present has profound implications. Something happens when we really show up for the present moment. We access the powers of Creation within us. We have some-thing to bring to that world. In the communion that we know with all that is with us, there is an awareness of holiness.
Holiness isn’t relegated to churches or cathedrals or temples. There can be a feeling of holiness in such places, but life itself is holy.
What does that word mean? The word defines itself, really. I could try to describe how we feel when we feel holiness. But the word is self-defining. It is what it is.
There is an expression from the world of coal mining—coalface. The coalface is right at the seam of the coal. And if you’re a coal miner, that’s where you want to be.
That’s symbolic of life itself. You want to be where it’s happening—where your life is happening. And when we show up in the here and now, we’re showing up for the universe. And the universe says, Oh good, I finally have someone who can address things in the human world. That’s our lives. We are in the here and now to address what comes up in our lives—to address what is ours to address at the coalface. It is unique to each of us—our circumstances, the world that we center, the people in that world, and then, not to be missed, our own humanity.
That is a way to describe the Primal Spirituality program we offer. It starts with being there for our own humanity. So often, people don’t show up in the here and now for themselves. They’re about this, that, and the other in the world in which they live, but without showing up for their own heart, their own mind, their own body, without being in their bodies, without being fully present, without penetrating their humanity with the presence of who they are, and with the expression of the spirit of who they are.
As we are fully present, we are here for ourselves, and then for the world in which we live. We are being there for ourselves and penetrating our human experience. Part of that is not letting your assigned human get away with things that it shouldn’t be getting away with.
We’re offering a course, which is coming up soon, called Spiritual Governance. We are bringing the governance of who we are, first of all, right here to our own humanity at the coalface of Creation. But it’s more than just keeping ourselves out of trouble. It’s penetrating the hardness of the human heart that we inherited along with everybody else. And what is the one thing that can penetrate it? Love. Here is another word that is self-defining. There’s no accurate definition of what Love is. It is beyond human definition. But it is knowable.
We’re talking about the highest Love available to a human being. It is the highest Love within us. So we are talking about bringing that Reality to the human heart so that the human heart is penetrated.
We just held the first course in a seven-part program on Primal Spirituality. It was a one-day experience for the participants of just this—allowing the human heart to be penetrated by the highest Love. That is an essential component of a fulfilling human experience. It starts with your own human heart. So it’s no coincidence that this is how we start this seven-part program.
A blacksmith could hammer away at cold steel all day long, and there would be little change. The steel has to warm and become red hot, just as there has to be a warming of the human heart by the powers of Love, so it can shift and change and do all the things that it’s meant to do in a human life.
Did you ever think your heart could transform? That the habitual ways that you feel about yourself and other people in the world in which you live could change? It could, in a wonderful way. But a cold steel heart is not changing—you just get hammered away in life. And you might try to improve, to make yourself better. The more ambitious of us go into some kind of self-improvement program or a spiritual program of some kind. But there is no change if the emotional body is frozen.
It’s remarkable how few people have the big idea that something ought to soften in the heart so that change could happen. Everything else gets a lot easier if the heart melts. There is a time for being strong. And then there are dimensions of a human life in which being strong and hard doesn’t help you.
So, if you’re at that kind of a point in your life where all your strength and hardness are not helping you, let it go. Find that soft place in your heart that could be moved by the highest Love and trust that you could melt, and soften for a little bit, long enough to let Love in. And then find that you could let that be part of your life. You don’t have to walk around all day long being a softie, wearing your heart on your sleeve. But still, you have to find that softness in your own heart to live a fulfilled life.
Several weeks ago, there was a rally in Denver and another one in Greeley. I was tempted to go. I have long-held emotions about our country—tremendous feelings of patriotism. I love America. And I had all those feelings come up as a calling to go to the rally.
As it happened, here at Sunrise Ranch, we had a community clean-up day. We were beautifying the whole Ranch, especially the area behind the Permaculture Garden. And so, I was faced with the choice: Show up for the clean-up day or go down to the rally in Denver. Thinking about my decision, I remembered a saying. It’s three little words: Know what’s yours.
Know what’s yours. Yes, there is the significance and scope of the rally in Denver addressing national issues. And then there’s cleaning up the trash around the tennis courts. Know what’s yours.
I’m not saying that it couldn’t be someone’s rightful calling to go to the rally. But I knew in that moment what was mine and where the coalface of Creation was for me. I don’t mean to create some kind of trivial formula for that, saying that you need to stay where you find yourself in any given moment. But it is important to know what’s yours—to know where the coalface is. You could be digging a very deep hole that’s not at the coalface, and you’re not going to find any coal.
And so it is in life. You could be going here, there, and everywhere, following after this, that, and the other, and find that the fuel for your life is not there. The fuel for your life is at the coalface. There is the tendency in human experience to turn away from that—to look someplace else, to look for something else, and not face the thing right in front of you, beginning with your own humanity, and the people right there with you in your life, the world in which you live, and the calling that you have in your life.
I came to live at Sunrise Ranch in 2000. I had been here a number of times before for visits and courses. The time came when it looked like there was a need here. It became apparent that this was the coalface for me.
As is common in life, I didn’t know quite what I was getting into. But I came, and I remember the conversation with my parents. They appreciated Emissaries of Divine Light and Sunrise Ranch, though they weren’t followers of what we teach. Far more important to them was that this was my calling. And when I told them I was thinking about coming here, they simply said, Well, of course, you’ve given your life to this. Of course, if there’s a need, you would go and do what you’re called to do in your life.
Know what’s yours. This was mine, and they knew it. They were wise enough people to be behind their son in doing what he was called to do. It is wise for all of us to know what is ours. And to know who is ours.
That’s a deep subject, right? It could be a friend, loved one, family member, community member, or somebody you create with. Know who’s yours. Do you tell them that they’re a significant person in your life? Do you show up for them? Know who’s yours.
When we show up in the present moment, we’re showing up, first of all, for our own humanity and then for our immediate world and the people in it.
When a person shows up in the here and now, they are showing up for their ancestors—their parents, their parents’ parents, and beyond, and for their spiritual ancestors.
I am here to fulfill your dreams, your vision, the potential that you saw, the vision that you had, the seeds that you sowed. I am here to allow those seeds to come to fulfillment in my life and in the world because I am here.
That isn’t a judgment of those people, for better or for worse. We are not fulfilling a human personality. We are fulfilling the Spirit of Life that moved through them. We are fulfilling the creative urge of Divine Being that they felt and lived.
Showing up in the here and now, we are not only in service to those who came before us. We are here for the ones who come after us. Our sons and daughters, our students and followers, and the line of inspired ones who have not yet been born. Our presence now matters to them.
When we show up in the here and now, we are showing up for Eternal Being, God by whatever name. When we show up here on earth as keepers of the here and now, we receive the seeds of Creation that are present, hovering, but which can’t be fulfilled in this human world without a human being showing up in the here and now, saying, I am here for you—for all the promise that you hold, all the hope and desire that’s present in You for this little planet and for us as human beings. I am here to let the beauty of that possibility be fulfilled. I am here for You, to manifest it, to do everything I can individually to let Your promise be fulfilled. And in doing that, I awaken a body of people to fulfill that great promise, that great potential and possibility that’s present within You.
Such things become real to us as we show up in the here and now. It seems like such a mundane little thing, being in the present moment, and picking up trash off the tennis court. And yet when we show up in the here and now, we’re getting in touch with something and having a relationship with something that is vast. And so the sense of holiness overtakes us.
God is not only vast. God is near, and beyond near, God is present. That Reality becomes known. We are here for it, and come to know that it is here for us. And so, we bring the nearness and the holiness of that Presence into our lives to be shared with the people that surround us. They are ours. The world around us is ours as we are keepers of the here and now.