Your True Identity That which is purely the essence of all things is sometimes spoken of as “unitary consciousness,” Mind, Brahman, cosmic intelligence, etc. And it is sometimes said that “out” of this essence, this one actuality, all other things are manifested. But it must be clearly recognized that this essence is not something which has a center somewhere. And so, when it is said that plurality “manifests” from singularity, this is not to say that something is “coming out of ” something else (as in childbirth). There is not a One standing apart in readiness to impart the Many. The One is infinite, omnipresent: it has already always been all that is. And in its infinity, it is “outside” the pale of time; knowing nothing of duration or sequence— nay, only simultaneity—it is not the predecessor of any other thing. To manifest means to “make evident,” to express, not to manufacture. And, in this case, that which expresses is itself expressed by the expression. That which is giving birth, to put it another way, is itself always at the same moment being born; neither womb nor fruit is more fundamental or preliminary than the other. A nagging idea—which even the most ardent of the religious thinkers have difficulty surpassing—is that the Absolute “existed” before (and, in that way, apart from) us, and that out of this pre-existing condition we were “created” or “manifested.” Even if we were to take as a provisional premise that essence which is present in every iota of matter and energy, and at every point of form or void, it would form a singular, whole
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