Hello dear ones and welcome to today's reading in the presence of truth.
As always just taking a few moments to arrive here in this space.
Maybe noticing how your body feels.
What sounds can you hear around you?
And allowing yourself to relax.
To take some moments out of your day for you.
And when you're ready dear ones we will continue with our story.
The fire flickered casting long shadows across the room.
The silence between them felt expansive as if the space itself had shifted.
Emily still deeply immersed in the silence that Margaret had cultivated between them now felt the weight of something rising within her as though the ground beneath her was shifting.
After a long pause Emily opened her eyes breaking the stillness.
Her voice was softer now more contemplative.
I think I understand what you've said about the oneness of all things.
But it's so vast so much bigger than anything I've ever thought about before.
How can we live in the world?
Interact with people and remember that we are everything?
It's hard to imagine that in the midst of all the noise and the chaos.
Margaret's eyes were gentle yet full of quiet strength.
She nodded thoughtfully before responding.
Her words carrying a depth that seemed to settle like a slow breath.
That's the challenge isn't it?
Margaret said her voice carrying a peaceful calm.
To remember who you are even when everything around you seems to say otherwise.
The world teaches us to forget to focus on the differences the divisions the I and you.
It's all designed to make you feel separate.
But Emily every moment no matter how chaotic or loud is an opportunity to see beyond that illusion.
To realize that no matter what is happening around you you are the same presence that flows through the trees through the wind and through the people you meet.
That is the true nature of all things not the surface not the appearances but the essence beneath.
Emily looked into Margaret's eyes feeling something stirring within her.
Something unspoken yet incredibly clear.
It was as if she was slowly waking up to a truth that had always been there just out of sight.
So if everything is the same essence then why do we feel different from each other?
Why does it feel like we're disconnected even from the people we love?
Emily's voice was thick with the weight of this question as she tried to untangle the confusion in her mind.
Margaret smiled a knowing smile.
It's the veil my dear the veil that covers the truth of who we really are.
It's the ego the sense of I the identity you've built over time.
The ego is not inherently wrong it's just a tool a way for consciousness to experience itself in this form.
But it's not the whole picture you are the awareness behind the ego the witness of everything.
And when you remember that the sense of separation begins to fade you realize that there is no other.
There is no out there it is all you not in a personal egoic sense but in the deepest most expansive way.
You are the one who is everything.
Emily absorbed this quietly her thoughts swirling like leaves in the wind.
She tried to imagine herself as the awareness the witness the vast space in which everything was unfolding.
For a moment she glimpsed it a feeling of expansion of being beyond the limits of her physical body.
Beyond the small world she had built for herself but then like a fleeting breeze it slipped away.
Margaret noticed the subtle shift in Emily's expression and offered a gentle reminder.
Don't try to grasp it with the mind Emily the mind will always want to analyze and categorize.
The truth is felt not thought it's in the silence between the thoughts the stillness beneath the noise.
When you are fully present when you are aware without effort the truth of your being will reveal itself to you.
Emily nodded slowly her heart a little lighter but still heavy with the weight of all the things she didn't yet.
Understand but if it's all the same then why does suffering exist?
Why do we still feel pain loss and heartache?
Margaret's gaze softened her voice taking on a tender quality.
Suffering my dear is part of the human experience it is a result of us forgetting.
We believe that we are separate from life and in that belief we experience the illusion of loss,
Of limitation,
Of pain.
But pain itself is not an enemy it is a teacher.
It arises when we cling to what is transient when we hold tightly to the belief that we are something separate but pain too is part of the unfolding.
It can bring you closer to the realization of your true nature if you allow it.
The key is not to avoid suffering but to recognize it for what it is.
A temporary experience in the eternal flow of life.
Emily closed her eyes letting Margaret's words sink in.
Feeling the gentleness in them and also the depth.
The idea that pain was a teacher that it could lead to something deeper was a perspective she had never considered before.
So you are saying that pain and joy are just different sides of the same coin?
Emily said her voice still uncertain but more open now.
Exactly,
Margaret said her voice steady.
Both pain and joy come from the same source.
They are expressions of life of the same consciousness that flows through all things.
They are the ebb and flow,
The rise and form.
And when you see this,
When you remember who you truly are,
You no longer need to fear pain nor cling to joy.
You simply experience them knowing that they too are part of the dance.
Emily sat in silence.
This wisdom settling gently in her heart.
She could feel something opening inside her.
Like a door slowly creaking open to a world she had forgotten or never fully known.
It was as though Margaret had taken her hand and was leading her through the fog of her own mind into a space of clarity and light.
I think I'm starting to see it,
Emily said quietly.
But I still don't know how to live it.
How to carry it with me when I go back into the world.
Margaret's smile was soft.
You don't need to do anything,
Emily.
Just be.
The world will show you what it needs to in its own time.
Trust that the truth will unfold as it always has.
And when you forget,
When you get lost in the noise,
Simply return to yourself.
Return to the silence.
It is always there waiting for you.
The room fell into comfortable silence.
Both women sitting in the stillness.
Each contemplating the vastness of the truth.
Emily felt a peace settle in her heart.
One that hadn't been there before.
It was a quiet knowing that all was exactly as it should be.
