Consciousness

• You feel a higher purpose.
• You are in communion with the whole of life.
• Your awareness is always open to change. From moment to moment, it senses everything in the environment.
• You feel acceptance for all others as your equal, without judg­ment or prejudice.
• Every moment is expressed with renewed creativity, clinging to the old and outworn is not your way.
• You feel cradled in the rhythms of the universe – safe and nurtured.
• Your idea of efficiency is to let the flow of life bring you what you need. Force, control, and struggle are not your way.
• You feel a sense of connection with your source.
• You are committed to giving as the source of all abundance.
• You see all change, including birth and death, against the back­ground of immortality. Whatever is unchanging is most real to you.

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Therein lies the peace of God“– A Course in Miracles

None of the above items are spiritual wooha that I read somewhere; they are facts of daily existence at the level of every cell in your body.

Higher purpose: Every cell in your body agrees to work for the welfare of the whole; its individual welfare comes second. If neces­sary, it will die to protect the body and often does—the lifetime of any given cell is a fraction of our own lifetime. Skin cells perish by the thousands every hour, as do immune cells fighting off invading microbes. Selfishness is not an option, even when it comes to a cell’s own survival. The cells that line your stomach completely change every eight days. Every cell in your body is a conscious, living, thinking, being!

Communion: A cell keeps in touch with every other cell- even without the Internet, or facebook. Messenger molecules race everywhere to notify the body’s farthest outposts of each intention, however slight. Withdrawing or refusing to communicate is not an option at the cellular level.

Awareness: Cells adapt from moment to moment. Their consciousness is open-minded and flexible in order to respond to immediate situations. Getting caught up in rigid habits is not an option.

Acceptance: Your cells recognize each other as equals. Every function in the body is interdependent with every other. Going it alone is not an option.

Creativity: Although every cell has a set of unique functions, some cells can perform many different tasks, these com­bine in creative ways. A person can digest food never eaten before, think thoughts never thought before, and dance in a way never seen before. Clinging to old behavior is not an option for a cell. Artists and musicians can understand this, while many older people stuck in their ways have a difficult time.

Being: Cells obey the universal cycle of rest and activity. Although this cycle expresses itself in many ways, like blood pressures and digestive rhythm, the most obvious expression is sleep. Why we need to sleep remains a medical mystery, yet complete dysfunction develops if we don’t get enough of it. In the silence of inactivity, the future of the body is incubating. Being obsessively active or aggressive is not an option. I’ll add a little caveat here: Your sub-conscious mind never sleeps! I don’t think my heart stops beating during sleep, nor does my stomach put digestion on hold until I wake in the morning. I’m pretty sure I keep breathing too.

Efficiency: Cells function with the smallest possible expenditure of energy. A cell stores only three seconds of food and oxy­gen inside its cell wall. It trusts totally on being provided for – a lot like a human infant entering this world – without teeth or the ability to survive alone, we “know” we will be cared for. Excessive consumption or hoarding of food, air, or water is not an option at the cellular level.

Bonding: Consciousness within each cell knows that they are all the same. The fact that liver cells are different from heart cells, and muscle cells are different from Brain cells, does not negate their common identity, which is unchanging. Healthy cells remain tied to their source no matter how many times they divide. For them, being a rebel is not an option.

Giving: The primary activity of cells is giving, which maintains the integrity of all other cells. Total commitment to giving makes receiving automatic—it is the other half of a natural cycle. Hoarding is not an option.
Immortality: Cells reproduce in order to pass on their knowl­edge, experience, and talents, withholding nothing from their off­spring. This is a kind of practical immortality, submitting to death on the physical plane but defeating it on the nonphysical. I wonder if a sub-conscious desire for immortality is behind the human desire to procreate.

When I look at what my cells have agreed to, it appears to be a spiritual pact in every sense of the word. To me, the first quality, following a higher purpose, is the same as the spiritual qualities of surrender and self­lessness. We’ve all heard the saying: “let go and let God” or Carrie Underwood’s first big hit “Jesus take the wheel”. Giving is the same as returning to God what is God’s. Immortality is the same as a belief in life after death. The labels put on it by people are not my cell’s concern. To my body, these qualities are simply the way life works. They are the result of consciousness expressing itself over billions of years as biology. The mystery of life is patient and careful in allowing its full potential to emerge. Even now, the silent agreement that holds my body together feels like a secret because, to all appearances, the agreement doesn’t exist. For something that doesn’t exist, the cells of our bodies are doing a pretty good job of running things – don’t ya think?

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