Indra’s net

ELIZABETH DENLEY shares some experiences of remembrance, and how it enlivens her life and her relationships with herself and others. 

At various moments throughout any day and night, remembrances surface like bubbles rising to the top of a pond, as people and other beings appear, momentarily bursting into consciousness. The heart naturally offers an impulse of love to those being remembered, and that impulse is itself a gift of love flowing constantly from the Beloved.

Love is received from the Source and passed on to others as a blessing, via the conduit of the Beloved, who is my teacher, mentor, and spiritual Master. In this way, the universe is constantly being created, as love is constantly flowing from the Source, touching every nook and corner of existence, through connections and entanglements.

Sometimes those who receive these impulses of love are strangers, sometimes associates or friends. They may be dear ones, and often the flow is recycled back to the Beloved himself. They can appear in vivid consciousness, almost too much to bear; or as an undercurrent, subtle, almost imperceptible; or anywhere in between.

They can be here or on the other side of the Earth; an ancestor, long gone yet full of presence; or a great being woven into a past or future existence. Connections do not need physical bodies to be real. Love and remembrance transcend time and space, the physical and the non-physical dimensions. You may have heard of Indra’s Net—the mythological web of connections and interdependencies that is this universe. Well, I have observed that remembrance can surface from anywhere across the full expanse of that field, and so it taps into the collective consciousness and unconsciousness.

The mental function we know as memory, smriti, is one of the 5 functions of human thinking described by the great sage Patanjali a few thousand years back. In his treatise, the Yoga Sutra, he called them the 5 vrittis, and all have magical gifts that we have been given to aid our speedy evolution. But they are not just functions of thinking. Number 4, smriti, memory, is more about feelings than thoughts, and more about subtle essence than feelings. The heaviest of memories may be complicated, even traumatic, charged with emotions and desires, but the subtlest may have a homeopathic quality with nothing detectable, just essence. There may not be any weight at all, just as there may be an undetectable fragrance of jasmine that causes a hidden lifetime from another era to bubble up to the surface of consciousness.

Memory becomes subtler and lighter in nature over time with regular meditation. We go beyond thought, and beyond feeling, too, so that memory and love are entangled in remembrance. When we reach the subtlest love for and memory of our original home, we reach the ultimate remembrance. Thankfully, easier by far, we can also reach that ultimate stage by becoming one with the Beloved, who is himself in osmosis with the original home. This is the great boon we receive on the spiritual journey of love and beyond.

And when does that happen? When we remember, when our consciousness is pulled.

Love is always flowing through us, like gravity, from the Source outward and back again. It cannot not be there, only perhaps hidden by our own lack of awareness. When we become conscious and aware of the Beloved’s presence, then we remember. And we remember when our consciousness is pulled—by a beautiful scene, a beautiful face with eyes framing the soul, a beautiful piece of music, the joy of life itself, the person who stirs our hearts, or the Light at the Center of our hearts. Those objects of our love keep coming to us again and again, until we realize they are inviting us to dissolve in them. That is the beauty of using memory in search of Oneness; it allows us to remain connected and entangled. It allows us to remember.

Memory becomes subtler and lighter
in nature over time with regular meditation. 
We go beyond thought,
and beyond feeling, too, so that memory and 
love are entangled in remembrance.

What is not true is that we are directing the composition of our love like a conductor. At best, we choose to celebrate and yield to the flow, rather than resist it, but we do not have any control over love. We can, however, try to attune with it, be in osmosis. It is manifesting the heart-to-heart connections in this divine play in which we are actors. We need only open our hearts to the flow of love and remembrance.

If I close my eyes and remember my Beloved’s hands, their fragrance and the vibration radiating from them is instantly present, no matter that he is on another continent. When I remember his eyes, they pull me inward. When I remember his being, his essence is everywhere. But even sweeter is when there is no conscious remembrance of these things; there is a presence that I cannot describe and cannot always feel, but if I check, it is there and always has been.

Often we quote the great inspirational texts and scriptures that say God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, God is at the heart of every being.

What do they mean?

That we are all connected with God at every moment of every day of all the many lives of our existence. We are never apart from the Ultimate being.

That we remain bathed in divine love, no matter what mistakes we make during our lives. We are as innocent as young children, and He is forever gently drawing the love from of our hearts and just as gently drawing our love into Him. Life itself is a pure expression of that ebb and flow. We are not solid beings, we are conduits of life force.

That we are entangled in Indra’s Net. It explains so much—why there are discoveries like the observer effect, why there is a quantum field, why consciousness is always collective, and why the soul is joy.

And probably so much more. 

We swim in remembrance of the loving Source that holds this universe together, supported by great beings. In their remembrance, we touch the essence and purpose of life, not just human life, as well as consciousness, and what lies beyond consciousness. For this we simply have to start the journey and keep going.

We are all connected with God at every
moment of every day of all the many lives of our
existence. We are never apart from the Ultimate being.

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