Illusion and Perception: Join Deepak Chopra in a Global Meditation

"You and I were never separate

It's just an illusion

Wrought by the magical lens of

Perception

There is only one Wholeness

Only one Mind

We are like ripples

In the vast Ocean of Consciousness"

-  Heaven is Here, Michael Jackson

In our reach for wholeness, we rarely realize what it is we search for.  We often idolize the lives we see in the media.  Wish for a bigger house, a better car, more money, or sometimes even just simple recognition.  We might think no one understands us.  We're different.  We don't have the same opportunities that others might.  Maybe our thoughts turn to no one understands us or our past.

The current plight in the world is underlined by all of these thoughts.  Instead of turning inward we search in an outward fashion for the "things" we think will fulfill us.  Only if, we say.  Or if I had more money, more time, a better partner.  Instead of trying to find what makes us fulfilled inside, we strive to find that something outside.  Looking to the media, our partners, or our communities to fulfill our needs.

Many times our communities, our partners, our parents, our situations don't fulfill those needs.  So we continue our search often disgruntled by past events or unfulfilled dreams.  We don't realize that our true source of the nourishment we seek already lies within us.  Only we have the power to forgive, to love, to show compassion, or to hate.  It is our choice.  And in that choice we take, we take it out to the world and are with every action and with every thought contributing to the whole of the world - the mass consciousness.

If we look at our media, we'll see  a prime example.  Many people and products are advertised, written about and commercialized.  They are designed to sell you on a concept, a thought, a belief about a product or a thing.  When we are unconscious about what serves our needs most, we often fall into the trap of believing what we are told.  That a new car will make us happy or that a bigger house will make us look more powerful.  Everything is  an image, a "perception", an "illusion" that is brought to others by means of altering an opinion and or belief.  Rarely do we look outside the realm of what's reported, what's shown to us or what we talk about with our friends.  We want to belong. We want to feel included, accepted and social media, the television shows and commercials we see all offer promises of making us feel better about ourselves.

When we look past those illusions, we only see the real story.  That there is still a someone, a person, that still experiences problems just like us.  There is someone behind the facade trying desperately to make themselves "look" a certain way.  It's the couple that seems to have the perfect marriage, then you find out the wife has been cheating on her husband for years.  It's the man who likes to show off his fancy car and talks about the money he made just in that one day, that we later find out who filed for bankruptcy.

We want success, because that will make us happy.  We want acceptance and success, money, cars, bigger houses, are all the messages we have been given that equate to us thinking that's what will take us there.

But if you've ever gotten that bigger house, that better car, the cool job to make you look like a million bucks, you'll most likely realize it never did have the power to make you happy.  Our true happiness lies in love and acceptance.  That's something that can't be offered by the television or social media.  Those things are only an illusion of the true need for intimacy and love.

No matter what's happened to us or what our perceptions are about ourselves, we can always look within to take back what our true natures are.  We were made from love.  Manifestations of a greater source that connects us back to everyone and everything.  Accessing that source can not only bring a greater sense of happiness into our lives, but a sense of belonging, of acceptance, of unconditional love and the true sense of who we really are as beings.  We are more than flesh and blood.  We are manifestations of a greater source of love and knowledge that is so much grander than any media can offer that we would find it hard to believe that it even exists.

In our hurt and our struggles we often close ourselves off to others.  Maybe others have hurt us. Maybe we believe we have to look out for ourselves and in doing so hurt others because others have hurt us.  Perhaps it's an old wound and we are angry and can't get past the pain and hurt to focus on anything else but that anger.  All of these feelings put us into a box.  An enclosed space within that aids us in feeling separate, alone and struggling.  If we open the box and realize our true natures lie in a space with unlimited potential, all of these things fall away and we can be joined into the unity of our creation instead of feeling separate from it.

Join Deepak Chopra this week in his quest to help us find that greater part of ourselves.  His Global Meditation will help us take the steps we need to find greater compassion for ourselves, for others and bring us into a state of awareness that transcends our old patterns of thoughts about being separate and alone. Enter a new state of awareness where you realize we are all connected in one huge symphony called life.  Our connections go deep and as they do, so will you.  It's not that you are connected to the person you hate.  It's that you are connected to the source that created you both.  We all have potential to do good or bad things.  To act compassionately toward one another or to be selfish with our attitudes and beliefs.  This series will help us to become more open to finding and being that kind of person that we would like to know and be with.  As Gandhi once said, we can become the change we wish to see in the world.  Take that step now.  For you, for me and the world we live in.