In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus' third saying is: "If those who lead you say to you: 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky!' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: 'It is in the sea,' then the fishes will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father."

I've mentioned before that on most mornings my spiritual practice finds me outside before dawn, listening. Mostly there are bird-sounds: quail, doves, the sound of hummingbird wings, the chirping of goldfinches flitting from branch to branch, cactus wrens and woodpeckers. There's a rooster within earshot as well; each morning he makes certain we do not miss the dawn.

There are the obvious sounds of coyotes as well as the sounds made by unidentified creatures disturbing the brush as their morning rounds take them through the desert outside the walls of my yard. I know that javelina, deer and rabbits pass by on a daily basis- who knows what else is out there? We've seen mountain lion prints in the mud, and frequently when I come home from teaching SEE classes at night I'll find a bobcat sauntering down my driveway, not the least bit concerned that I've shown up. I frequently wish that the world of Harry Potter would spring into materiality long enough to provide me with a Marauders' Map of the creatures present and unseen. Rattlesnakes... desert tortoises... tarantulas... once we had a very directionally-challenged pelican appear in our pool.

My practice is simply to listen fully, remaining completely present with each sound. Quail in the jojoba bush - hummingbird above and in front of me - woodpecker on the roof - coyotes howling outside the wall. In the space of this focused listening, there are very few thoughts. When thoughts do appear, they are easily recognized and quickly dismissed. The intention to listen is one of my practices of Presence, and my mantra is the symphony of Silence found in this cacophony of Life.

Occasionally, within the mix of this symphony, there comes a reminder: a knowing, a familiar voice which speaks not with words, but through a resonance within my heart. I AM this Life. I AM this symphony. I am not the totality of Life, yet I AM a necessary portion of its depth. Life would be less, Life would be incomplete if any one of us were not here to hear.

Scientists speak of the quest for the "unifying theory" which will join Newtonian and quantum physics. They perceive a gap between the workings of the "very large" and the "very small" things of the world. To those who require an algorithm, this gap seems irreconcilable. To others of us, the answer is so very obvious: WE are the unifying Force. That space in consciousness which looks inward and outward, the focus which determines form. I AM is the receptor and the catalyst. I AM is the determiner of outcome from the Infinite Field of All Potential and Possibility. I AM is the doer of the works of That Which Created us.

We are the hands, heart, feet and mind which translates the invisible and unknowable into the seen and the known. We are not separate, you and I. We are the I AM of Life. We are the choosers and the chosen, the blessed and the blessing. There is no gap between the world of the very large and world of the infinitesimally small, we just don't see it because we ARE it. Just as we can never see our own face directly, but only as it is reflected back in some way, we can only "see" our consciousness as its fruits are reflected back at us.

"The I AM has its being in heaven; its home in the realm of God ideals"

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