There is no other way to change the world, but to be the change we seek. To live this way of life that leads to transformation, healing and the realization of our greatest potential we must first understand our relationship to our true self, our false self and others ( people, living beings, nature and the cosmos ). Being aware of the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions in regards to these three realms of relations is essential to awakening.
       This moment right here, right now, is so wonderful and terrible because we are all in it together. All of us are living under the same universal conditions; we all have to live with this self we cherish ( and sometimes loathe ) and have co-conspired to construct, as well as with each other and with all life. Each one of us is both an amazing individual full of unlimited potential and at the same time an insignificant speck of ephemeral life in 13.7 billion light years of space that stretches out in every direction. We all are ageing and changing physically ( some are growing stronger in their youth or prime and others are slowly declining ), we will all die and can't help but be separated at some point from those we love and are attached to. We all need adequate food, shelter, health care, meaningful work and loving relationships. The rich, the middle class and the poor all share this fate. There is no escape from these forms of suffering and basic needs. We must learn to open ourselves to these experiences, surrender our resistance and find a way to accept and embrace these changing conditions, as well as recognize that everyone else who has ever lived, is alive now, or will ever be alive in the future will face these same challenging universal conditions of life.
       There is only one universal field of original creative energy that permeates the entire cosmos and everything and everyone comes from this evolutionary impulse to be. At the fundamental level we are all one and it is only our minds that choose to believe the illusion of separation, division and isolation. The false self is a construct, a mere appearance of an identity that keeps us asleep in ignorance; it is not the truth of who we are, but only a substitute for the truth. The ego wants us to believe that we are only our bodies and all of it's sensations, our emotions, our thoughts and mental activities. The ego is based in fear. It grabs for any form of identity to wrap itself in: gender, race and ethnicity, social, educational and vocational status, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, financial class, political and philosophical ideology, as well as body image and health issues. This false self cannot understand our own physical death and is fixated on the concept of a life-span that begins with conception and birth, wildly experiences all that it can during life and is completely annihilated at the moment of death. This is why it is a false sense of self.

inside small self
watching this mind squirm
dark spring day

I wrote this haiku after morning meditation....blessings to all beings