By Jan Imagine living in a gigantic universe, where everything and everyone is connected, but you have been given the impression that you are completely alone. That’s kind of the situation with separation. It’s like you’ve gone to a party, but you think you’re the only one invited – when in fact everyone is secretly chatting together in the kitchen.
According to “A Course in Miracles” and our friend Seth, at some point we decided it would be fun to pretend we were separated from everything around us. Yes, you read that right – as if! It’s as if humanity had a collective episode of “let’s play an exciting new game” where the rules of the game made us forget that we are all part of the same cosmic family portrait.
Humanity thought, “What would it be like to forget for a moment that we are all connected?” and so we created the ego, which told us that we are separate, independent beings. Pretty smart, right? Well, it certainly gave us some hilarious situations. For example, think of talking to your plant and asking her why she looks so sad, only to realize that you forgot the water pitcher.
Seth explains that we wanted to discover a new form of creativity and challenge in this way. It’s a bit like making a puzzle where you’ve kicked half the pieces under the couch and then boldly say to yourself, “I can do this!”
So as we stumble through life, we try to find those missing pieces and remember that the puzzle was once complete. And that’s where the joke is: the puzzle pieces never really went away. They were just hiding under our noses (or couches, as the case may be) the entire time.
In essence, separation is a cosmic comic misunderstanding. We have convinced ourselves that we are alone, when in fact we are always surrounded by an invisible hug of connection. So the next time you’re feeling lonely, remember that the universe is probably chuckling somewhere around you and thinking, “Wait until you get the joke!”