How to Access your Highest Self - An Inquiry into the Divine

Okay, first things first, press play for the audio above. Do it. Now let’s begin…

The word “Om” has opened and closed yoga classes for me, my students and teachers, for as long as I can remember.  But the word has served as a gateway and transition far beyond the stretch of my own memory, and yours.  There have been times in which the winded mantra has sounded like the word Home I longed to return to.  At times the word has been blended and elongated into a shared tonal prayer, with everyone chanting together in round, as I encountered with teachers Prajna Vieira or Douglas Riddings.  That rolling Om can cue a psychic jolt that we cause and contribute to.  We are so much more than we perceive. 

The word Om has a rich heritage: it bridges Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and these days its symbol, the number three with lasso midcenter and half an eyelid above, has become more than commonplace.  To translate Om, we reach back into the Sanskrit where it’s defined as “the essence of ultimate reality” or “atman.” Since this can feel like a linguistic game of hide and go seek, I’ll add that the word atman means inner self, spirit or soul.  The ultimate essence of reality is about as divine as it gets. 

For those of us in the Western world, the word Om has an esoteric, mystical presence.  It’s otherworldly.  Sometimes we need to be jarred out of our worlds to see the divine within them.  But it’s also the same root we find in Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient—All present, all powerful, all seeing.  I don’t speak Sanskrit well.  I don’t speak Latin either, but I grew up in a world where the word God meant the ultimate essence of reality.  It also meant the Christian Church, which wasn’t where I grew up, or what made perfect sense – at least not in the limited way it purports.  I’ve always loved the word god, the idea of god, the very real presence of god in my life.  But my path to god was unique—eclectic, you might say. 

That desire, that voice within you, that’s your good.

It is your good, and no one else’s.

Emma Hopkins Curtis tells us that the Good of our life is our God.

The word God is for many people a scar.  It can be a passport to an ethical doctrine to which you never agreed.  God can mean the church whose rules and regulations ran counter to the truth.  The word God can cue the abuse of power, and in unfortunate cases, even falsely justify abuse.  Anyone who escapes a misuse of the divine name for a less than divine practice should be applauded.  But rebuking a system doesn’t mean you need to rebuke the great force that was once it’s root.  The Wholeness from which you came is present now, and always will be.  You are still divine, and your wholeness, your perfection is deeper than any system that didn’t support this discovery.

The word Om is a gift to us.  It removes the word God from the equation, and erases a cultural trigger for many.  What if you could use your own words, your own language, to get closer to your highest calling?  I take no issue with using the words of many languages, being a spiritual polyglot is my jam.  But what if your heart’s passion was attainable through words?  After teaching creative writing for over a dozen years, I will swear left right and center: your words are your superpower.  “In the beginning was the word” -- so said St. John.

What is the one thing you truly truly want?  Can you name it?  Can you get so clear about it that you could hold it up like a marked up transparency to light?  That desire, that voice within you, that’s your good.  It is your good, and no one else’s.  Emma Hopkins Curtis tells us that the Good of our life is our God.  The word you are meant to exclaim is your god, which is your good.  It’s yours alone.  Your God, your Om is a unique slice of reality.  Why do you stand for if not to rise to your good?  Why does the grass grow towards the sun if not to get to its good?  Why does the Orca migrate if not to get to its good?  Why does the pollen whisp through the air if not to get to its good?  Hopkins says “The good you are seeking created you” (6 Hopkins).  There is a secret within you already, and when you hear it, and answer it, you manifest your God.  

The word Om can help us to forget a unique programming.  Or perhaps remember it.  Hopkins says “If I should take the unspoken sentence which lies like a hidden jewel under the jagged covering of your thoughts about the things you do not like, I would read it, ‘There is Good for me and I ought to have it.’  There is nothing but has in itself the conviction that there is Good belonging to it that it ought to have” (7).  It is Omnipotent – this part of you, and the universe will line up to put it in place, if you work with it. 

The words you use to name your divine self are many.  But your divine gift, the thing you crave most to manifest, it is yours already.  It is up to you to name it.  And if you’re still uncertain, the linguistic gifts of the 21st century are plenty.  Say the names you know, God, Om, Allah, Buddha, Christ, Elohim, Dreamtime, or the names that will take you there, Clarity, Love, Health, Success, Strength, Beauty, Joy, Oneness.  It is yours.