Meaning & Value

This is a response to thoughts and questions posted in the comments section of my last post, “Love, come on in this field.” I’m going to address the questions by writing in the form of a channeled answer, because the answers that I have originate from the non-physical perspective, from the Whole self and the knowledge available there. It’s easiest for me to maintain a non-physical perspective to gain accuracy and stretch conceptual understanding, and that comes out in a distinctive voice that often feels as if it’s only partly mine. Keep in mind that this is only what I know through my own experience.

The questions were these:

My struggle these days is with “meaning.” If every path is “valuable” then that’s the same as saying that “everything has value” which is really the other side of the coin which says “nothing has value.” What’s the point of all of this? Distraction?

So allow us to address these one at a time. In this way we will arrive at a coherent whole that addresses the question of “meaning”.

If every path is ‘valuable’ then that’s the same as saying that ‘everything has value’ which is really the other side of the coin which says ‘nothing has value.’

Consider this: If nothing has value, then everything is valuable.

Why do you end the thinking with ‘nothing has value,’ when you could end it with ‘everything has value?’ This is indicative or revealing of the thought forms or beliefs on which this confusion is based. We give you this to ponder.

If you have a $100 bill, you will perhaps think that it has more value than a nickel. Yet if you have need of a nickel – or any coin – and all you have is the $100 bill, of what use to you is the $100 bill? It is still valuable, yet situationally useless.

If you have the skill of a nurse, yet find yourself in need of an engineer’s knowledge, of what value is your nursing skill in this moment, in this situation? Your skills may be of little value, …

And yet the experience of being in a situation where your $100 or your skills are of no use has potential value. It may be that by experiencing this situation you explore and experience deferring control to another whose skill sets are situationally valuable (in the second example), or perhaps this situation offers the opportunity to learn through observation of the engineer applying her skill. Et cetera. What we are saying here is that even when a something appears valueless, value can be found or experienced. It may only be that the value is found outside the normal belief structure of one’s value system.

This discussion of value is necessary, for the basis of this questioner’s confusion rests upon the mistaken concepts of value that have been inculcated through culture. If everything has value, it does not mean that everything is the same. It means that everything is uniquely valuable. Does Michelangelo’s David negate the beauty of the Mona Lisa? Does the balance of a leaf negate the need for the cloud? Does a doctor’s skill negate the need for a bricklayer? Of course it does not, for the value of anything that exists rests in its unique signature, its unique being-ness, different from any other being-ness and so each is and experiences being as an invaluable cog in the immense beauty of creating and creation.

What is the point of all this?

What a question, surrounded by the incredible and glorious intricacies of creativity manifested through the very existence of a physical world. What if it is only that, to experience beauty? What if it is only this: for the pure joy of exploring expression, of exploring creative experience? Would this be a disappointment? But what could be more valuable than joy? What could be more valuable than beauty and infinite creativity?

This is a hard sell in the physical world! The underlying beliefs of the culture do nothing to support this truth. Value comes from hard work, hard experiences, suffering … this too is true, for these things are joy and beauty to the Whole Self who crafts them. They are valuable. They are valuable because of the ultimate joy and beauty and experience that they are to the Whole Self.

From the point of view of the physical mind, there is a grand desire to be meaningful and valuable, for one’s life to be of meaning and value. But these judgments are made from a limited mind trained into limited beliefs. We assure you that you cannot do otherwise than have a meaningful and valuable life. Because all experience is ultimately valuable. If some path allows your conscious mind to gain satisfaction and a sense of meaning and value, by all means, explore that path. Yet understand that its meaning and value most likely rests within the plot of the movie that you have immersed yourself within. When the movie is over and you regain your awareness, when you re-focus upon the reality of who you are – more than your physical body, more than your emotions, more than your present thoughts – you will have a different perspective. You will not judge meaning and value, for you will assume meaning and value.

We will leave it at that for the time being.

Also, if ultimately there is only One being, then is not that being solitary and alone? How sad.

Your concept of One being is necessarily limited by your conceptual understanding of individuality. Would you say that the flock of a thousand birds flying together, dipping and swooping in perfect harmony, is a single? Would you describe the colony of ants as one being? You perceive them as communities of separate beings only because that is how you have chosen to perceive reality. Each of these communities can also be accurately and truly called a single One. One mind. One action. One being. So too do some perceive the human race as one being. This too is a matter of perspective.

You are taught to perceive yourself as an individual. You are taught that you are one individual yet you are part of many Ones – you are female or male, American or Chinese or Aborigine, you are earthling, you are a teacher or a spy or a cheesemaker. You describe these as peripheral, these groups that you are part of, but it is just as valid to perceive these groupings as the individual, and you as a piece of the group mind. You are a little part of many ones that makes up the One, in this perception.

Is your family the same family without you? It is not. The One of the family is changed by the absence of any part of itself. Is the body the same body when missing one eye? It is not. The nature, the character, the capacities and the potentials of the family or body are different when a part is missing.

Is the family or the body any less valuable for the change in its contents? It is not – it is different, not better or worse. So now we find ourselves back to the question of value. In the physical world value is assumed as a hierarchical order, but this is unnecessary. It is inaccurate in the scheme or perspective of the All. Value does not imply nor require a hierarchy. There is value in every being-ness, in every experience, in every exploration, in everything that exists. This is explained in Application of Impossible Things [my book], in any case.

The ultimate One, the All, is made up of all. It is in and of and through all that exists; it creates and is created by all that exists, physical and non-physical, potential and probable, manifested and yet to be created. Do you find yourself lonely? Do you find yourself sad? Perhaps not, for while you perceive yourself as one, separate and therefore potentially lonely, you are all that is, for you embody the All, you are the experience and be. And as you perceive that you are not alone, so the All is all, infinitely inclusive and how then is loneliness possible when all are the One?