to look into it directly. For that reason, the priest turned the mirror slightly aside. Whereas for Christianity, the coming together of God and man can be symbolized in the cross, for the Shinto, the mirror expressed this same possibility.
Perhaps the biggest conceptual drawback we have to understanding our true companionship with the Creator is that we too readily identify with our physical nature rather than with our spiritual reality. From the standpoint of the Cayce readings, we are not physical bodies with souls, but spiritual beings who happen to be having a physical experience. The problem is not one of trying to become something else; rather, it is one of not living up to the very best we already have within us. We are already spiritual beings! The truth of our divine nature is clearly illustrated in this popular Hindu legend:
At one time, all people on earth were gods, but they so sinned and abused the divine that Brahma, the god of all gods, decided that the godhead should be taken away from them and hid in some place where humanity would never again find and abuse it. “We will bury it deep in the earth,” said the other gods. “No,” said Brahma, “because they will dig down in the earth and find it.” “Then we will sink it in the deepest ocean,” the gods said. “No,” said Brahma, “because they will learn to dive and find it there, too.” “We will hide it on the top of the highest mountain,” the gods said. “No,” said Brahma, “because they will someday climb every mountain on earth and again capture the godhead.” “Then we do not know where to hide it where it cannot be found,” said the lesser gods. “I will tell you,” said Brahma. “Hide it down inside the hearts of the people themselves. They will never think to look there.”
The Cayce material confirms the fact that we have forgotten our true nature as children of God. Instead, we have so identified with our physical lives and our earthly experiences that we no longer remember why we came into the earth in the first place. Simply stated, our goal is to somehow bring heaven into the earth. Many individuals have incorrectly assumed that the goal is to get out of the earth, and have even stated things like: “I hope this is my last life. I just want to go to heaven and rest.” Yet, this is looking at our heritage from a perspective quite different from that contained in the Cayce information. In fact, the readings confirm that God desires to be expressed in the world through us—with the example set by Jesus being the pattern for every soul.
What may come as a surprise to even students of the Edgar Cayce material is how an individual’s soul growth and one’s ability to become cognizant of a connection to the Creator are intertwined. In some respects, this awareness is defined in Cayce’s spiritual growth material as the lesson on “Cooperation.” But rather than being a lesson on how to get along with others, Cayce’s premise is that the lesson is ultimately about learning to cooperate with God so that the divine can work through us. The reality of being companions and co-creators with God is a reality for the present, not something that becomes true upon physical death or when a soul achieves enlightenment or reaches heaven. The challenge, in part, is overcoming the perception of our separation from the Creator.
The Cayce readings give pointers regarding our separation from God and the path to return to the desired state of companionship. An easy way to gain some experience that may lead to a better understanding of this process is to turn your attention to your breathing. Stop reading for just a moment, and focus on your breathing for perhaps a dozen breaths. When you’ve taken a moment to focus on your breaths, you can continue reading.
Based upon reports from countless people, when you turned your attention to your breathing, you probably began to adjust it in some manner. It’s almost automatic for us to take control of our breathing as soon as we pay attention to it. But before you turned your focus to your breathing, it was happening on its own, naturally. You were, so to speak, unconsciously “one” with your breathing. But as soon as you paid attention to it, you experienced your breathing as something that you observed, separate from you, and you began to control it. Here the “ego” stepped in to assert itself (e.g., “You’re not breathing deeply enough”) and created a separation from the natural state of breathing. Just as your breathing was an effortless expression of your nature before you paid attention to it, once you did, you turned breathing into your “job.”
To experience what it might be like to drop this sense of separation, and become, once again, one with your breathing, but conscious of that oneness, pay attention to your breathing while letting it be. Explore the affirmation, “I am aware of my breathing, and I let it be. I let go and let Spirit breathe me.” Here you can learn, in a simple situation, what Cayce meant by “watch yourself go by” while acknowledging and trusting in the guiding presence of a greater wisdom. It is a relaxed, receptive stance of the ego; the ego is not eliminated, but it becomes a witness to the activity of the Creative Life Force within the temple of the body.
Edgar Cayce asserts that each soul has within itself the seed of awareness of and companionship with the Creator. Modern research in comparative mythology and dream symbolism has demonstrated that the human unconscious mind does contain a buried notion of God. What happened to it? In describing the “Fall,” Cayce makes a distinction between our sensory mind and our soul mind, and how that affects the aspect of God we can experience. When we look at the world with our senses, we experience ourselves as separate from the world out there. The senses allow us to experience the impersonal side of God, the physical universe that scientists can observe and study. How do we perceive with the soul mind? It is through the imagination. Often we express this process when we say that we can “see with our heart” what is invisible to the eye. As Cayce put it, “the purpose of the heart is to know yourself to be yourself and yet One with God.” (281-37) Thus we experience the personal side of God internally, intuitively. And what is the personal? It is that which has the experience of “I AM.” Perhaps you recall that famous expression coming directly from God’s lips: “I am that I am.” It means that God defines Himself as that reality that is the source of the primal, universal experience of being, the “I am” experience. Our intuition hints that there is a point of conjunction where we meet God. It is within the heart of our own “I am” awareness.
The most frequent opportunity to experience the blessing of this connection is probably the most important. It is when we interact with others! Becoming aware that the “I am” experience within us is identical to the “I am” experience within others provides the link for this connection. Become aware of it, realize it, honor it. The Creator within each and every person awaits your recognition, your companionship. The word “Namaste,” which in Sanskrit literally means “I bow to you,” is used as a greeting throughout Asia today. Buddhists say to each other, “Namaste,” meaning, “The Buddha in me greets the Buddha in you.” Just as the “I am” reality is the same for us all, we all also desire happiness. Just as you have needs, so does the other person. Kindness and compassion for others is a natural result of these realizations.
The Cayce material expresses a similar sentiment. When we gratefully offer our presence to another person, when we are willing to share the moment, listen, acknowledge, and affirm the presence of the other person, we are on the threshold of Heaven. From the Cayce perspective, Heaven is not somewhere we go alone as we achieve righteousness but an experience we share with others as we honor and serve the Creator within us all. If the Creator desires our companionship, then we offer it best when we offer it to one another. We may serve others in a variety of ways, but to offer companionship is to serve the awareness of the “I am” that unites us. To do so is to acknowledge the presence of the Creator in our midst, which is the companionship the Creator ultimately desires.
4
All of Life Is Purposeful
OVER THE FORTY-THREE YEARS THAT HE GAVE READINGS AND HELP to people from all walks of life, Cayce frequently counseled individuals facing every manner of hardship, heartache, and loss that, with time, their experience could be seen by them as purposeful. In other words, somehow the challenge could potentially be
