Once upon a moment, O Best Beloved, long before time and space and causality (and still) there was a humongous, seething mass of energy called the void (or quantum soup, if you’re a physicist). And it swirled continuously in dark chaos folding back upon itself and opening out again, full of its own excitement and vibrating with potential for creation.
Then, in one portentous moment, it came to pass that some of the bits of energy stuck together and, before too much longer, a Presence emerged as conscious awareness. That means It was awake. Peering around at the void, It gathered more and more of the vibrating energy to Itself until It became a real Being that was able to know things though there wasn’t anything yet to know then. And, because this Being was awake and fairly intelligent It began to think which created time since thinking is usually done in linear sequences - or one thing after another if you don’t know what a linear sequence is.
And then, O Best Beloved, the trouble began because thinking creates a new and artificial reality. Having nothing else to think about because nothing had been created yet, The Presence began to think about Itself; and very soon It realized that It was all alone in that vast space called eternity because eternity has no beginning and no end. So the Presence realized It was not only alone, but that it would be alone forever and ever if It didn’t do something quick. And It began to search for a remedy both inside and outside of Itself. [There was now an inside and outside because thinking puts fences around things and separates them out from where they come from. This also made the space called “eternity.”] And the Presence saw that outside Itself everything was chaos, and inside Itself was now some order and structure. Still there was no thing yet. The universe and world hadn’t been created. There was just the void and the Presence in it.
Now, you have to understand that the Presence had unlimited power because It had all that quantum soup energy to draw on. So the potential was there for almost anything to happen. Well, guess what! The Presence drew in a deep breath of chaos and turned it into Love, and that was the first creative act that ever happened.
However, that just made things worse because there was no one there to give the love to and it just built up a strange, longing tension inside for somebody to share it with. That tension grew and grew like holding your breath until the Presence could bear it no longer. And then, O Best Beloved, It blew out a huge puff of love that turned into a person like you and me.
And the Presence said to the person, “I love you with all my heart. I’ve been waiting for you forever. I thought you’d never come into my life. But you are finally here now. Come to me. Be with me. Be my love.”
And do you know what? The person was so busy looking around that
it didn’t hear the Presence. In fact, all it could see was its own
shadow because the light of the Presence was behind it. And that
shadow was huge, dark and fearsome, a veritable monster or so it seemed.
So the person ran away and hid in a personality and ego, so no one could
see that it really was just a breath of Love and nothing else.
But don’t you worry, the Presence hadn’t let go of the
person entirely but had it on an invisible, elastic leash. So whenever
the person pulled too hard in the wrong direction, a deep, sensuous longing
welled up in its heart pulling it back toward the Source. This was
like a kind of homesickness that made everything in the person’s life feel
like it was just short of being the right thing, the one thing that would
make the person happy. And whenever the person turned around toward
the light, the tension would ease up and a moment of happiness and joy
would happen. So pain and joy came into people’s lives in order to
show them how to find the way Home.
And every once in a while, the Presence would call out, “I love you. I need you. I want you. Come to me. Come be me. Come be with me.”
Do you hear, O Best Beloved? Its voice is there, right there, in your very own heart - calling out Its loneliness and need to share. I’ll bet you never thought of looking for Home in there, in your heart, where the pain and joy are. Well, if you get very, very quiet and tip toe right into your chest, you will find it’s a safe place full of loving kindness just waiting for you to arrive.
Now you may be wondering why this story doesn’t tell about the creation
of the world and the universe, all the stars, suns and moons that we see
out there when we look. Or about the trees and flowers and animals,
or the oceans and mountains that we see all around us. Or the bodies
we live in, for that matter. Well, I’ll tell you a secret, Dear One.
They only exist in the mind of the Beloved One who wanted to set up a playground
for you to grow up in. Only you and me, and all those other breaths
and the One who is breathing are really and truly real.
There is only One of Us.