by Toni McKilligan

Created on: June 18, 2008

Somewhere inside each of us is a spark that ignites life. Some call it spirit. Some call it soul. Some even call it God. Whatever name it is given, though, it is both infinitesimal and immeasurably vast. A thought, a word, a touch; all are driven by this spark.

Religion tries to define it. Science is trying to find it. Yet it remains as elusive to many of us as the Holy Grail. There is no name that can wholly reflect its meaning. There is no place from which it can be picked up, held or examined. No word describes it. No form outlines it. Still it is. And the quest to find it continues.

The term spiritual seeker is intriguing. What is actually being sought? No one, I think, really knows for sure. Spiritual seekers are looking for something, but what? Peace? Happiness? Freedom? And where will they find it? It doesn't seem to be out there somewhere, though that is where so many of us look for it. The Buddha tells us that it is right under our noses. Right now. Right here. All we have to do is wake up and know that it is, always has been and always will be both within and without. All is One.

Sounds simple. And it is. It just isn't easy.

The reason it isn't easy is because we possess reason. We conceptualize everything in order to communicate. By conceptualizing we separate and individualize; we lose ourselves in otherness. Instead, perhaps, we might want to lose ourselves in Oneness. Then it, that unknowable spark, will become known.

Look out your window. What do you see? You see life in the interplay of form, light, movement and color. Put aside thoughts of tree, cloud, sky, grass, car, person, flower or mountain and try to see only the Oneness that is. Consider then what you do not see. Insects. A cat hiding in a tree. People in the house across the street. Add those to the Oneness. Now listen. What do you hear? Mix it in to the Oneness. Now breathe. Inhale the Oneness.

You are part of that Oneness. Your spirit is the spirit you find as you look through your window. What you see, hear and smell and what you don't is not out there. It is within. Within your senses. You project it as well as reflect it. It is as much a part of you as you are a part of it.

Spirit in life is life. Life is all that exists. Every thought. Every word. Every deed. Every form. All life. All spirit. All is one; one is all.

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