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CHAPTER TWENTY

The Idea: All that Is

The idea that everything is related to everything else is a very simple idea. It harbors within it the essence of being: That everything is
exactly as the pressure of everything else has allowed it to be. The interrelated totality of a universe is the final arbiter of reality, since
everything, every event, is as that final arbiter has allowed it to be, as an infinity of interrelationships, a complete whole of "all that is."
However, this idea of interrelationship which sprang from a most basic relation between three points, the original idea's basic triad, has
also grown into the most complex idea imaginable: That everything is related to everything else in All that Is. From this essence of being,
how the universe defines a thing's being, grows a complexity of being that defies the ability of the mind. We can never hope to know
what the image of an interrelated infinity looks like, nor can we ever hope to understand all of its intricacies down to the smallest detail.
This level of understanding of the most complex is beyond the domain of idea but rather is in the domain of belief. The essence of being
is an idea of interrelationship: All that Is is a belief in an idea, in the essence of being.

We can never hope to grasp directly the significance of All that Is; it being more in the domain of ideas of the gods than of mortals; but
we can see directly what that interrelated whole looks like at the level of our reality. It is a characteristic of interrelationship that the
greatest and most complex is responsible for being in the smallest and most simple. The infinite interrelationship is responsible for the
creation human, an individual human being with a mind. This is an infinite simplification that is visible to us as conscious beings. The
complex human mind is capable of individual thoughts; an infinitely complex universe is able to arrange itself into individual units of
energy such as atoms and molecules; the greatest, in the manner of everything related to everything else, is forever reduced into its, in
effect, inverse, the simplest. So is it with the totality of interrelationship expressed in All that Is.

Through the energy of belief, we are able to encompass the greatest ideas into their simplest values. In turning to the same process that
defines reality to itself in terms of itself, we can turn to a belief in All that Is in order to see it As it Is. They are but inverse images of one
another, one being the all encompassing and the other being its particular. Each thing is in infinity as that infinity has allowed it to be, and
so is it with an individual idea; it is especially true of a belief; once in existence, because of All that Is, they have their own energy.

To believe in All that Is as the essence of being is to be reduced to a basic value of reality in one's space in time, in terms of how that
space in time is defined in terms of All that Is. To believe in this idea is not as if to believe in God. God would be more of a belief in an
interrelated whole of personalities together as an infinite Totality of Personality. Rather, an interrelationship of personalities is still beyond
the scope of this exploration; here it is more an interrelated whole of things and events that comprise reality which together ultimately
lead to the creation of the value we would call a personality. Belief here is still in the realm of idea, whereas belief in God would
transcend idea completely and be entirely in the domain of belief, of personality experience. Thus, All that Is is not a religious idea but
rather a metaphysical one that will help us define certain values of reality. When we believe in All that Is, therefore, we are not turning to
a mystical idea; instead we are placing ourselves at the metaphysical center of the energy that is released by our individual, personal
identity. The universal reality of All that Is is infinitely complex but, through our belief, it is reduced to a simple force that can be worked
with directly in our everyday experience. It places us in the mind, connects us with the memories of our greater identity, and allows the
essence of this identity, this being, into our human existence. Through belief, in All that Is, we become one with ourselves.

In our pursuit of being, we are at the center of our existence. As we are at the infinite value of All that Is that defines the value of our
being there, so are we in the value of reality that defines our being here. The greatest is reflected in the simplest and the personality of
our being is reflected in an individual being with personality. What we are inside ourselves is what we are outside us. What we see, hear,
feel, and touch, are all values of reality that have already positioned themselves to be received by us as we reach out to them. Reality, in
effect, rushes up to meet us at our every step, as we are in our greater value in All that Is. Our personality exists in All that Is as an
identity: I am. It exists in All that Is as a greater identity: I am my being. "All I am in my being is as it is in I am." This is how the two
values that comprise our being are the essence of being revealed in the immediate environment of our existence. It is how we touch the
world and how the world touches us. As we are here is as we are at our greatest value; as we are there is how reality rushes up to meet
us at every moment of time.

We are now posed with an interesting idea: That how we touch the world is how we are at infinity; conversely, how the world touches us
is how we are in our personality. The two values of personality, the infinite and the particular, are thus simplified into individual being.
Together, they form the rich and multifaceted experience of a human being. The experience of being alive, aware, conscious of the self
and of the world, how we touch things, how we mold them, how we create; all become a window into our soul. How we choose or how
we seek to explore are now all manifestations of the energy of belief: To believe that the greatest is forever reduced into the simplest, that
as we are at infinity is how we are in our being here, in our thoughts, in our moods, and ultimately in our chosen actions. Then, in how
we are in our being is how our being is reflected by reality. In the essence of our being, the universe touches us.

If the basic value of our being is personality, then personality is an individuality that has substance in universal terms. We may call
personality that phenomenon that has the ability to form a body and give it that special identity that is revealed in its features or beauty or
presence. It shows itself in behavior, in our personality traits, our moods, our ways of handling reality and its consequences, generally
those characteristics that distinguish one being from another. To do all these, it must be an energy within the universal order. Personality
may be no more than the animism of a simple life form, or it may be the complexity and sentience of higher life forms. In sus humans, to
our knowledge, it has reached the highest level of sentience with an ability of consciousness. We have the ability to express our feelings
verbally, conceptually, as well as artistically. We are able to express ourselves in ways that transcend merely the need for survival and
can express compassion or charity or love. Though we tend to swing within a wide spectrum of values from the egocentric seeking of
power to selfless sacrifice, from the passionate and lustful to the gentle and serene, we are able to moderate these extremes with our
ability of consciously choosing our moods and behaviors, even if not perfectly. Thus, we can define ourselves in terms of our
consciousness; whether we are lustful or serene depends upon how we are able to work with these values of personality and control
them according to our personal beliefs. If the force behind existence is the raw energy behind personality, the energy behind the soul is
more subtle with a finer ability to choose personal existence in All that Is. Our ability to choose, and the effects of those choices, are the
windows into our soul, though they are nothing more than what materializes in terms of the greatest and most complex. Personality is the
simplification of All that Is in an individual living being. Personality consciousness is the simplification or particularization of a greater
reality. Ultimately, personality as a soul is the greatest reality simplified in an individual, as we consciously choose to express our soul.
The ultimate individual and particular simplification of All that Is, then, is the human soul.

The energy of personality is thus a basic value in the essence of being. It is a real value because it materializes itself as the living human
body; it is potential value because it is capable of producing a soul. Yet, it is the raw energy of being that permeates all things. It is
evident in all living creatures, as much in the whale as the horse, a mouse as a bird. It is in fish, trees, flowers, fruit, as it is in bees, or
frogs or lizards. It is somewhat evident in the very primitive life proteins same as it is evident in the more advanced creatures in the
company of humans. Within the framework of these ideas, the personality is reduced even further into any thing in reality that has an
individual being. All things are defined in terms of All that Is wherever a part is defined in terms of its whole. There is energy of
personality in a brook or hill or a forest lane. When the light filters down into a clearing or when the waves reflect the silvery light of
dusk, there is the energy of being there. When we touch a stone or build a temple, when we tend a garden or mend a wing, they are the
energy of being revealed in their own way. These forces may be evident in mountains or rivers or great works that have survived time
but built by human hands. Perhaps this is what the ancients had tried to capture in the great temples whose being had survived to the
present. They were capturing the energy of being, of personality, in works that would endure through all time. There is magic to that
kind of belief; it survived to the present. That same energy may be as evident in the grass on the field or in the sand on the beach,
forever changing and yet able to endure. The energy of personality flows even more with interaction. It magnifies in the presence of a
gathering of like mind and like belief. Where it is tended with love and affection, with the strength of conviction and the power of
personal sacrifice, it grows still fuller into the consciousness of a soul. With grace and tenderness, with serenity and compassion, we
awaken in us the basic value of our being.

In this is the miracle of All that Is. It is an infinitely complex simplicity expressed in an individual being as a body with a mind capable of
producing a soul. It is capable of love. It is capable of gentleness and charity. Think how sublime is this existence! The more a living
being is capable of affection, the greater is its capacity for the energy that is personality. The more it is capable of personality, if it so
chooses, the more is it capable of a soul. A soul is a conscious personality. It endures, it survives eons, it is the value human in All that
Is.

How fortunate for those for whom this pursuit of a greater being in All that Is is natural. For most it is work, yet how miraculous that is
at all achievable. There is not always the desire in us for goodness, for it is a desire which we must learn in life. To reach for goodness is
an arduous achievement in itself; to succeed at it is to fly in the face of all that seems reasonable. Is it not easier to simply lie or to steal?
Does not a child first learn to self seek with untruth before it can discern that such behavior is unacceptable to its superiors? Even
monkeys steal. So is it with the natural personality of man. We tend to first grab at what we feel should be ours. It is only later that we
begin to discern that such behavior is not desirable in the advancement of personality, in the formation of the soul. When we first
touched things, we crushed them or tore them mindlessly; it was not until later that we learned to hold them without damage; it was not
until we became more advanced as a mind with a soul that we learned we can create or build. It is the same with the development of
personality as a value of being. At first we err, then we build and create and enliven.

The mind naturally wrestles with the conditions of its physical existence. Either it is aggressive, egotistical, self seeking, or driven with the
seeking of power; or it is submissive, careful, and selfless in a manner more suited to finding agreement. A conscious personality need
not encourage trespass, it should discourage it, but nor does it seek to trespass on or overpower others. A mind can be strong by the
virtue of its convictions, yet docile before its personal reality. The elements that confront it at every moment of time are the real values
of its being in All that Is, they are its creations, but they are not in its confrontation. Such a mind learns to work with its reality, is fearless
in the world of its existence, and gains strength from the elements of its personal reality. The universe is energized by our being, as we
are energized by its being. In time, we learn that it is more advantageous to give of this energy than it is to take from it. In such a mind
are the beginnings of the seed from which may be born a soul. It is patient, and it believes in the condition of its existence.

We are all personalities, whether in this existence or in that existence of which we but dimly perceive but from which flows all the energy
of new life; we are all traveling together on the surface of this planet, at this time, within the elements of this existence. For each one of
us exists a vast phenomenon of existence, a panorama of reality that totally envelops and defines our personal being; within this vast
being is formed the identity that is our personal being, our personality. From these two is forged the individual existence within which we
live. We touch the world, we touch the personalities of others, and we touch the existence of new living beings. Our children are
personalities that have come into our being; we are the personalities through whom they found physical expression. How we touch these
is how we project our personality into All that Is, and how they touch us is how the universe reveals itself to us. In the manner of
Infinity, it is all taking place on a finite value, a sphere, where interaction between souls is a virtual necessity.

Thus we choose in how we are. We choose our friendships, we choose our environment, and we choose how we will affect the world.
We either do this through agreement and care, or we do it through force and brutishness. In the extreme, we do it with violence and
death. These all reflect on our personality. In the simplicity of existence, they become fixed on our identity and we will carry them with
us through the eons as a mark of our being. We will then either be personalities conscious or unconscious, either capable of the soul or
merely animism. How we believe, how we interact with one another, how we exist, how we create, how we energize our reality and how
we are energized by it is how we are as real values in All that Is. When we become conscious of this, we take on a new meaning in the
universal being, in All that Is, and we partake in the idea of the most complex reduced to the most simple: We take on a soul.

"It is good."

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