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Center of the Universe
If powerful men and women could remain centered in the Tao, all things would be in harmony.
As you lose the filter that I call a story, you begin to see reality as it is: simple, brilliant, and kinder than you could have imagined. There’s a resonance that doesn’t ever leave the center. You come to honor it, because you realize that you have no authentic life outside it.
Wherever you stand, you’re in the center of the universe. There’s neither big nor small. Galaxies and electrons exist only in your own perception. Everything revolves around you. Everything goes out from you and returns to you.
This may seem like selfishness. But it’s the opposite of selfishness: it’s total generosity. It’s love for everyone and everything you meet, because you’ve been enlightened to yourself. There’s nothing kinder than knowing you’re It. The awareness of your own self—the only self that has ever existed or ever will exist—leaves you automatically centered. You become your own love affair. You’re self-amazed, self-delighted. You’re all alone, forever. Don’t you love it? Look at your beautiful self!
I used to believe that there was a you and a me. Then I discovered that there’s no you, that in fact you are me. There aren’t two to take care of, or three, or four, or a billion. There’s only one. The relief of that! It’s enormous! “You mean there’s nothing to do? That if I’m okay, everything is okay?” Yes, that’s exactly it. It’s self-realization. Everything falls sweetly, effortlessly, into your lap.
You’re not only the center, you’re the circumference. You’re the whole circle, and you’re everything outside the circumference too. Nothing can limit or circumscribe you. You’re all of it. You’re all that you can possibly imagine—inside, outside, up, down. Nothing exists that doesn’t come out of you. Do you understand? If it doesn’t come out of you, it cannot exist. What are you manifesting? Stars? Universes? A tree? A bird? A stone? Well, who is the thinker? Take a look: Did anything exist before you thought it? When you’re asleep and not dreaming, where is the world?
When I first realized there was only me, I began to laugh, and the laughter ran deep. I preferred reality to denial. And that was the end of sorrow.
This is an excerpt from the best selling book; “A Thousand Names For Joy: Living In Harmony with the Way Things Are”, by Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell
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