When the French philosoper Rene Descartes coined the phrase “cogito ergo sum”—“I think, therefore I am”—in 1637, he struck a blow to the evolution of spiritual man.
The truth of the matter is precisely opposite; the fundamental statement should read, “I am, therefore I think.”
Descartes reversed being with a function of being, and in the process, veiled one of the most powerful truths about our existence.
What We’re Made Of
Before we can live up to our full potential, we must first realize a full consciousness of who we are, of what is our fundamental nature as human beings.
The French Jesuit priest Pierre Chardin wrote that
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Who we are, our being, our essence, is the irreducible substrate of human existence.
Ontology is the study of being or existence and is represented as the search for an answer to the question, “What is the nature of the knowable things?”
In the State of Being, we learn that ontology must precede epistemology, which is represented as the search for answers to the questions, “What do you know?” and “How do you know it?”
The beginning of knowledge is the realization of who we are.
Operating from the physical and mental realms is like a bird trying to walk a 1,000 miles because it ignores its fundamental nature.
By getting in touch with your fundamental spiritual nature, you can fly where previously you have been crawling or walking. It helps you bridge the gap between who are being currently and who you have the capability of being.
Getting To Know Your True Self
This process is less creation and more discovery; you are simply realizing who you have always been. The light within you has always been shining and is now breaking through the darkness of false perceptions of reality.
Where in the past you may have been trying to change the fruits of your existence by focusing on the fruits, leaves, and branches, you will now see that all of these things flow from the roots.
Change the roots and you change the fruits. Being is the root of our existence, and thinking is simply one function of being.
The first law of physics is the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it can only change form. The “I Am” is the energy that underlies all form, the presence and the consciousness that all reality is based upon.
Whatever we give attention to grows. The more attention we give to our spiritual nature, the more that nature grows and is empowered. And the more the Godself grows, the more the egoself diminishes.
The key, then, is not so much to develop into something as it is to be who you already are.
Finding Soul Purpose is like sculpture, which is, in the words of author Irving Stone,
“…an art which, by removing all that is superfluous from the material under treatment, reduces it to that form designed in the artist’s mind.”
Learning to Work With Yourself
As you operate from the root of who you are, you drastically improve your ability to change the fruits of how you think and feel, and what you do and how you do it.
This power of being translates into more powerful ways of thinking, feeling, and speaking, which then translate into greater actions in service to others.
What we do, say, and feel flow from who we are. To change what we do, we must first change who we are.
Our fundamental spiritual nature is perfect; it has no need of change. All that must change is our relationship with and knowledge of ourselves, so that who we are can simply come forth in the world.
Understanding this also helps us to look past what we perceive as negative aspects of others. When we understand who people are, we are more able to look past the content of what they do and see the context of who they are.
Things that people do that may appear to be offensive and hurtful can be understood as pleas for help, indications of pain, or even indications of friendliness, etc. when we see them in the context of who they are, and not so much what they do.
By being in tune with our Being, we exponentially become a force for good, truth, and light in the world because by so doing we are also able to be in tune with the Being of others.
When we see people as they actually are, beyond the negativity, our relationships become full of compassion, wisdom, understanding, and pure love.
Furthermore, this does not even require that other people are also in tune to the process; when you do it, with nothing in return, you set a precedent for others to follow.
If they don’t follow, you suffer with them through the gift of compassion. You love their negativity just as you love your own, and it dissolves.
In the process of you becoming a love-driven individual, you become a teacher of light, a Being whom others seek out.
You become aware of powers, talents, languages, creations, inventions, questions, possibilities, books, ideas for movies, DVDs, CDs, etc. flowing through you.
You become a conduit of light and truth. You become the creator of your reality.
A Greater Connection to the Divine
Also, as you become a creator, you become aware of and begin living in greater accordance with the Natural Laws of the universe that provide the conditions of reality.
The first and most important law is the law of choice, which says that all life success is preceded by a clear choice followed by a committed plan of action.
When you access your “I Am” and you make the choice to stay in that realm, you are provided with unprecedented levels of discipline to consistently live your plan of action.
As you live in accordance with the law of choice, you quickly realize that in the State of Being, God is able to work through you in ways that were previously inaccessible. In this state, there is no longer any separation between you and God.
However, you also realize that none of this entitles you to any feeling of specialness; feeling special is the doorway back to the egoself.
You can do nothing but be who you are, and this does not deserve praise or adulation which lead to pride. God is special; you are nothing but His instrument.
In the State of Being, something critical occurs that has not occurred in any other module: you are done vilifying the ego. You now see that it has a purpose. The minute you stop fighting it, it no longer has any power over you.
Vilifying the ego is like trying to put out a fire by throwing gasoline on it. When you fight something, you’re using ego and you’re not accepting God. When you use ego to fight ego, it has the opposite effect of what you want, which is to reinforce it.
In the State of Being, we learn to love the egoself by understanding its divine purpose, and it simply gets replaced quietly by the Godself.
In fact, we realize that the egoself is merely a condition, but not a reality. Just as a shadow is a condition, not a reality, and is the absence of light, our egoself is also a condition and is the absence—not the opposite—of the Godself.
With this realization, you now know that the egoself has no power over you. It’s replaced by an enlightened being. It’s replaced by you in a state of being, a state of presence where you are fully present and aware in your Godself in an amazing moment called now.
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Steve D’Annunzio is the founder of the Soul Purpose Institute, the author of The Prosperity Paradigm, and a productivity trainer and life success coach to Fortune 100 executives, professional athletes, and high-performance entrepreneurs. For twenty years, he has been helping people identify their passion, develop it into a business idea, and deliver it to the world.
A member of the Transformational Leadership Council, Steve has shared the stage with world-changers like Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Jack Canfield, and Barbra-Marx Hubbard.
He uses principles of higher awareness to inspire others to be far greater versions of themselves than they ever knew to be possible. By combining scientific and spiritual truth, he co-creates inner transformations for people to experience more outer prosperity in their life.
He is an author and composer of many books, paradigms, and artistic projects that have the common theme of alleviating human suffering and enhancing joy.
Steve lives with his family in Rochester, New York.
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This is a beautiful reminder of our true natures.