Full Blown

Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say “I think,” “I am,” but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simple the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.

Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1841 essay, Self-Reliance explains the self in simple terms, but those terms get lost in the day-to-day events that shape individual expansion. Consciousness stands on its own, but is connected and aware of all of its parts just like the mountain is aware of the rocks, grass, cliffs, and rivers that make it a mountain. The self is like a mountain that senses other aspects of itself, but puts them in another reincarnational state of existence in order to perceive itself as the top of the mountain of selves.

The self is like a mountain, and the rock layers that form it are like past lives. We are not any part of those past selves, even though they are part of the history of our being. The past is in its own space and time, and exist simultaneously with our present lives just like the strata of rock exist simultaneously with the mountain even though those rocks existed in what we term the past.

What happens at the top of the mountain in terms of experiences affects everything below it so everything that we experience affects these other realms of selfhood. There is a constant interchange even though the conditions are different. Conditions in the valley are different than the conditions of the foothills, but every experience in each has an impact on the other.

The validity of each aspect of the mountain is important, and each aspect focuses on its own reality at its own level. The self has a history, which is constantly changing with each thought and action. Like the mountain we have a history of the present which is ours, but not ours; history does not control us since we can alter it with our thoughts.

The action of each self like the rose and the mountain is satisfied and satisfies the nature of consciousness by being full blown in every moment of existence. Full blown is the art of recognizing the nature of the self as it exists now without comparing it to the other flowers that surround us.