WTF, World. W.T.F.
Hey Friend,
Ever feel like everything has just… flipped upside down?
Between conflicting truths, loud opinions, and nonstop noise, it’s hard to know these days what’s really real. Increasingly, I feel the urgent call to anchor myself in something deeper than the "hot takes" of my own and others' making. More than ever, I want to center on what matters. I want to know who and what I am, what we all are, at the most authentic and fundamental level. I want to know the Truth. With all of the divisive, dizzying craziness, diverging perspectives, and (seemingly) insurmountable deficits of integrity, it can feel impossible to find solid ground to stand on.
But... What is True? What is Real?
Turns out, maybe not as much as we think. Our minds are exceedingly good at creating stories from the tiniest scraps of input. Thank goodness for meditation, right? That sweet practice where we get to release our white-knuckle grip on the ceaseless brain-babble and step into a truer knowing.
In this OMM series, we’ll be exploring ways to root ourselves in truth... not just the kind of truth you scroll past in headlines or read in a book, but the deep, unshakable kind.
So, let’s begin where clarity can most readily be found: within.
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So Ham / I Am That
Within the sacred stillness that So Ham meditation offers, we have the opportunity to return to the root of who we are.
So… I inhale... "I Am."
Ham… I exhale... "That."
So Ham... "I Am That."
This powerful practice doesn't simply calm and center (although it does a lovely job of those). It helps us reclaim Truth.
So Ham invites us into deep communion with life beyond our stories, beliefs, distortions, attachments, aversions, and limited experiences. It calls us to know beyond our own subjective understanding. It invites us to let go of “little-t truths” and anchor into “Big-T Truth”... that unshakable, unifying presence that underlies everything. Little truth gets stuck in slices of information filtered through the machinations of our labels, ego, and individual life experiences. Big Truth, however, recognizes the fundamental interconnectedness that exists as the foundation of our myriad perspectives. It reminds us that we are all unique waves emanating from the same dang ocean.
So, while little truth chops up the world into left and right, up and down, right and wrong, you and me, Big Truth reminds us at the center of it all, "I Am That." We are one.
It can be hard to wrap your brain around this idea. It flies in the face of the way we experience much of life. In my own moments of doubt, though, I often remember this little gem: of the universe's entire electromagnetic spectrum, we humans can only perceive 0.0035% (what we call “visible light”). If you stretched that spectrum across the U.S., our measly 0.0035% would be the size of a kidney bean.
That’s a hell of a lot of non-bean reality we don't account for.
Living from Truth means acknowledging that we actually "know" very little. So, instead of attaching too strongly to our personal perspectives on others, the outside world, and the way things "should" be, we can choose to focus the bulk of our energy inward first, where we have more power. We then use that energy to cultivate a knowing, an abiding in, our fundamental interconnection (So Ham). Finally, living from Truth means confronting the weeds in our own perception and thinking, gently pruning the old patterns, and tending to the soil of our awareness so we can act in gentle alignment with Truth.
Next week in Part 2, we’ll explore just that: the mental weeds we all face and the spiritual opportunities they offer.
Until next time,
Take a breath. Feel your feet. So Ham. You Are That.
With you in Truth,
Nichole
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PS- If you enjoyed the short So Ham Meditation, go deeper with this longer and more spacious practice!
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