Category: Enlightenment

The Big “Oh”

In the movie entitled When Harry Met Sally, starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, there’s a famous scene in which Harry and Sally are having a discussion about relationships while sitting at a table in a busy diner. Sally is telling Harry that at one time or another most women have faked an orgasm. Harry doubts that such has ever happened to him—he would know. Sally then goes to great length to demonstrate a fake orgasm that includes tossing hair, hand pounding the table, and cries of “Oh, God, ohhh, God–yes, yess, yesss!” After Sally finishes making her point, Rob Reiner’s mother, Estelle, who plays a character sitting at nearby table, nonchalantly tells her waiter, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

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Most adults are probably familiar with the type of big “O” referred to by Harry and Sally; but for the purposes of this article I’m going to relate some information about a very different type. It’s the big “Oh” related to our spiritual nature; which by and large goes unrecognized by the masses for a human lifetime.

Since infancy, all of us have programmed to believe that “our” consciousness is personal and arises due to neuronal processes of the brain. This belief is so deeply ingrained within us that the majority never question its validity. We assume that our identity is a combination of sensations, images, feelings, thoughts, and memories related to name, age, gender, race, and nationality, etc. Due to this, we conclude that “we” begin at conception or birth and will, thus, end at death of our body-mind. Upon this common shaky assumption we base our entire life.

What if, however, that such isn’t true? The big “Oh” related to spiritual awakening turns this paradigm of reality on its head. Through enlightenment, we realize that our essential nature is Consciousness, Itself; in which the world and our body-mind arise. For those who claim that such is impossible, it’s worth contemplating the fact that space-time and all of the apparent “material” objects and scenarios within nighttime dreams are rendered by Consciousness. During a dream, situations seem as real as real can be. A brick building within a dream seems to be made of “real” bricks and mortar; but when we, Awareness, merge once again with waking-state “reality,” we realize that the brick building and everything else within the dream were created by mind, which is Consciousness in motion. At that point, we assume that “Earth” is made of matter, not Consciousness. But, is it?

To support the information I’m sharing, I offer Saying 2 (of 114 Sayings attributed to Jesus) from The Gospel of Thomas:

Jesus says: “Let him who seeks cease not to seek until he finds: when he finds he will be astonished; and when he is astonished he will wonder, and will reign over the universe!”

I humbly suggest that the “astonishment” to which Jesus referred isn’t that we’re a person in a material world; but that we, in fact, are the Universal Consciousness, or Spirit, in which our “person” and the world arise. The false self, our person, is nothing but a repetitive “I-thought” that we assume to independently “exist.” Please contemplate the following quote from Man’s Eternal Quest, by Paramahansa Yogananda:

“Live in the consciousness of Spirit, in that oneness with God wherein you know that life is a dream.”

This is supported in this quote, from “Why Lazarus Laughed,” by Wei Wu Wei:

“Reality alone exists–and that we are. All the rest is only a dream, a dream of the One mind, which is our mind without the “our.”

Our understanding can also deepen through the following quote from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra:

“This embarrassing problem–that there is no way to prove the existence of an outside world–undermines the entire basis of materialism. Thus we arrive at the second spiritual secret: You are not in the world; the world is in you.”

If you would like to experience the big “Oh,” I highly recommend the practice of meditation. Make “time” to sideslip the world of the senses and enter the transcendent Now. In the stillness of Being, it’s possible to realize that you are Spirit, here and now, dreaming a human life. Recognition of true Self is the biggest “Oh” you’ll ever experience. If you’re eager to recognize your essential nature, I offer more information through my following YouTube video entitled “Unchained Love, Our True Nature.” When you knowingly “meet” your true Self, you’ll experience a sense of glory beyond compare.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2026 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡

8 Billion Prodigal Sons

This article contains an exaggeration: There aren’t actually eight billion prodigal sons. It’s true, however, that the vast majority of Beings are prodigal sons and daughters without being aware of it. Before we go further, let’s share what the term prodigal son actually means:

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, prodigal is defined as follows: “characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure; recklessly spendthrift.” The Parable of the Lost Son, found in Luke 15: 11 – 32, relates the account of a father and his two sons. The younger son asks to receive his inheritance from the father, who willingly grants it. He travels to a distant country and lives an extravagant and wasteful life; while the older son stays at home. In time, the son who went away becomes destitute and is forced to work as a swineherd, which would have been considered repugnant work. When the circumstances of his life finally become unbearable, the prodigal son finally realizes that he must rise and return to his Father, who welcomes him with open arms.

The parable is actually a metaphor for what happens during our human journey. When we stray from the Father (Awareness), it means that we have been ensnared by the world of illusion (Maya) and forgotten our essential nature, which is Spirit. Due to conditioning, we assume ourselves to be a separate self of name and form. That’s what it means to turn away from the Father, aka Consciousness. In our confusion, we waste our life on self-centered goals related to a fictional self. The parable mentions repentance, but this doesn’t have to be interpreted heavily. To repent merely means to acknowledge our error (sin: to miss the mark) and recognize true Self. The son’s return to the Father means that the son has “awakened” and realized his true nature as Spirit.

For several hundred years, the materialist paradigm of reality has convinced the vast majority of beings that their apparent body-mind and world are made of independently existing stuff called “matter.” This continues to occur despite science informing us that atoms, which were once considered the building blocks of matter, are 99.999% empty space. The truth is that our apparent body-minds and the world are rendered by mind, which is Consciousness in motion. When Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,” he was referring to Consciousness.

How do we turn to the Father? By investigating the nature of our true identity through self-inquiry. We can “Know Thyself” by withdrawing our attention from our senses and becoming still. When we meditate, it becomes obvious that we are the witness of our sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts. Our true nature is That which knows. Awareness, Itself, is the the very Substance of All That Is. It’s not dependent on the body or the mind. In fact, the truth is the other way around–the body and mind are dependent on Consciousness. They appear in the Waking State and are erroneously assumed to be the sum total of our being. Every time that we rest in the stillness of our essential nature, we return to the Father and, thus, know peace and joy. We only suffer, or become destitute (as in the case of the prodigal son), when we fall back into Maya and the perspective of personhood.

The ratio referred to in the first paragraph will begin to tip in favour of the Father when more beings investigate their essential nature. All that’s required is to ask the question “Who Am I?” with earnest curiosity. We are neither our body, nor our mind. Instead of trying to appease the false “i” through objects or activities, we are wise to turn within and discover the true Source of happiness. Human incarnation provides a unique opportunity to recognize our essential nature. It would seem a shame to waste it.

Dare to dream (and care for one another).

With heartfelt regards,

Art

Copyright © – 2023 – R. Arthur Russell

P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones), press here. My YouTube videos can be found at Think2wice@I-Am-Aware. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey. “Thank You” & “Note to Publishers” 🙏🏻🧡