I invite you to meditate on the words directly below. Within it is the name El Shaddai. It is an ancient Hebrew name that is often translated as God Almighty, which I think of as a name for the vastness of God.
May I never walk alone.
May I always walk with you.
Let me know your peace.
I am the Life that breaks through.
El Shaddai! El Shaddai! El Shaddai!
You are Almighty.
I am you in living flesh.
Praise to the Highest!
Whenever something of a spiritual nature is named or described, the topic can seem to be the words themselves, or the tradition from which they come, with whatever beliefs are associated with them. It seems practically unavoidable. So, if we speak of spiritual things, we use words that speak to the subject that is of interest and hope for the best, perhaps knowing that the meaning we seek to convey is likely to be hidden from those whom we are speaking to, at least to some degree.
Words that name the spiritual may seem mystical or intriguing. They can open experience. They can also turn people off and shut them down. Sometimes it is good to remember that we are speaking of Reality—nothing more or less. In that sense, we are speaking of something entirely normal, though wondrous and delightful. We might end up speaking of it as something unusual—something other than life as most people usually experience it. But that is only because the prevailing human culture worldwide has lost awareness of Reality. It is filled with all the obsessions of culture that are but a pale reflection of what is real.
This Pulse of Spirit series of weekly articles is devoted to offering a glimpse of Reality to people who read it. But beyond that, the intention is to invite people to move from having glimpses of something other than the human culture to which they have become accustomed to a consistent experience of Reality. When that happens for a person, they are not only enjoying that experience for themselves. It is overflowing into expression, filling the world in which they live. And inevitably, the flow of lived experience collides with the spiritual somnolence of that world.
In that somnolence, philosophers wonder about the great existential questions. Who am I? What is the meaning of life? Where are we going? Philosophy and religion attempt to answer those questions. But so often, that devolves into a belief in a story, dogma, or behavioral code that falls short of a knowledge of Reality.
In some cases, at the origin of a religion was someone who awoke to Reality and sought to share what they came to know with others. Most often, the culture around them dealt with what they brought by deflecting it, twisting it, and turning it into a feature of their own culture, without awakening to the Reality the person knew. And still, the knowledge of Reality, when known by one or more people, hangs in the air. It pervades the space of human consciousness with the restless urge of creativity and life.
Jesus of Nazareth was such a person—someone who shared a deep knowledge of Reality. Beliefs regarding him—for and against—are piled high in world culture. I studied his teachings when I wrote my book Primal Christianity: Uncovering the Original Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in 2024. What became blatantly apparent was the simple yet profound knowledge he brought to the world. It was also clear how those who were around him and who initiated the Christian faith when he was gone—with few exceptions—misrepresented the knowledge he brought. How could that have happened? Simply because they never left the somnolence of the culture in which they lived, even though Jesus gave them a glimpse of something else.
We could use mystical language to name the knowledge that Jesus brought. At the heart of it, he answered the most profound existential question: Who am I? Or collectively, Who are we?
That knowledge had been known and introduced before Jesus’s lifetime. The clearest evidence of that introduction is still extant today, preserved in the most ancient books of the Bible.
So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
—Genesis 1:27
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
—Genesis 2:7
Jesus affirmed this Reality and his participation in it in these words:
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.
—John 17:21
You could read these words as Judeo-Christian if you want. Stripping them of belief, are they not telling us who we are and what we are meant to know? Are they not saying that we are each a child of the universe? And that we are part of the Being that manifests throughout the universe—part of God. That is not a claim of perfection or an arrogant claim that our human nature as it is is God. It is not a denial of the somnolence of human culture. It is simply an affirmation of what is true. Despite whatever ignorance remains—in the individual or in humanity—any human being can awaken to it. Every human being can embrace this Reality for themselves.
There was so much that Jesus taught that illustrated this Reality in living color. But even more impactful to humankind than his teachings was his spirit, one of extraordinary love. Through his life and teachings, he gave, in essence, this message:
This is who we are. This love. This glory. This freedom. This nobility. I am all of us. And you are me.
This is knowing oneself. It is not something of religion or belief. It is knowledge—the most foundational knowledge a person can have. It is the foundation for all knowledge for humankind, because if we do not know who we are, there is no organizing principle for any other information we may possess.
You are Almighty.
I am you in living flesh.
Praise to the Highest!
May we come to know this Reality and bring it to the world.