Heaven Is Here
Excerpt from "Dancing the Dream - An Interpretation"
© Sabine Fritah-Lenze, Silke Milpauer
The poem „Heaven Is Here“, published in the book “Dancing the Dream” in
1991, deals with thoughts based on and derived from the teachings of
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha.
The fundamental idea is that everything and everybody is connected with
each other and that our consciousness is the foundation of everything
that exists. In this construct of ideas, God is this consciousness –
everything is one and belongs together, or, as Michael puts it, “There
is only one Wholeness, Only one Mind.” Nothing lasts forever, however,
everything is eternal and subjected to constant transformation. There
is an ocean, but its waves are never the same ones, they come into
being and fade.
Analysis by Sabine Fritah-Lenze
The poem “Heaven Is Here” can be regarded as an introduction into
Doctor Chopra’s teaching. It contains the notion that everything is
created through consciousness, and that, in fact, there is nothing but
consciousness. This theory has its origin in Buddha-Dharma.
Gautama-Buddha found out that there is no real self, but a not-I,
not-self, which Buddhists nowadays call “Anatta”. Believing that the
nature of every human individual is constant change, Siddhartha Buddha
tried to make his students see that there is no real “I”, for it is
subjected to permanent fluctuation.
With this opening I have anticipated the content of the poem at hand
very coarsely and superficially. Therefore, I will now try to go into
detail, but in a different way than I have done with every other poem
so far: I will not start with a summary of the poem’s content, for this
appears to be ineffective here. Regarding the structure, “Heaven Is
Here” consists of eighteen stanzas containing several repetitions in
order to make the reader internalize the subject. Furthermore, there is
no general rhyme scheme in the poem.
“You and I were never separate / It’s just an illusion / Wrought by
the magical lens of / Perception” (1-4) is the first verse, stressing
that though our senses tell us we are individual beings, in reality we
are all one. Perception and observation have a dominant importance in
the quantum theory. I explained its principle in detail in my
interpretation of the poem “Quantum Leap”. In this context, just the
quantum-indeterminism-theory and the principle of the blurred picture
is important: All measurable physical units are subjected to
fluctuations, which are unforeseeable and spontaneous changes. This
also implies that data concerning this physical units is uncertain. For
example, when the position of one electron is totally measured, the
movement of that electron is totally uncertain, for the electron cannot
give exact information of its position and movement at the same time.
As long as we do not observe a specific thing it is not certain, for
before observation, it is a kind of wave, scattered over time and
space. It is immaterial, not local and in the field of imagination. As
soon as it is observed, it becomes a particle. Then it is defined in
time and space, in the field of materials.
This is all very scientific, but the question is: What is the wave,
and does the particle stop existing while it is not observed? That is
not a pure physical question, but a question of believes, and it shakes
the world we know.
In Buddha-Dharma reigns the idea that an individual who dies is
confronted with all the knowledge of the world. His “Karma” enters pure
consciousness when it leaves the body. Because that experience is so
overwhelming, the Karma searches for a new body. This process is the
so-called reincarnation. A part of the pure consciousness is God, or
more accurate: God is that consciousness. While the soul is always part
of God, the mind is not able to bear the unified field, which is also
called “Nirvana”. The “Karma” needs to hide inside a body until it has
learned after many, many lifes how to confront “Nirvana”. But even
while living, every individual is part of the unified field; In fact,
the unified field is created by each and everyone. This example helps
us to understand that when there is no attention on a thing, e.g. the
particle, it does not stop its existence, it just melts back into pure
consciousness.
This is what the second verse is based on. In consciousness, every
individual is connected to every other individual. Though we seem to be
locally isolated from one another, we are all part of the unified field
which is God. This is what is meant by the lines “There is only one
Wholeness / Only one Mind / We are like ripples / In the vast Ocean of
Consciousness” (5-8). These lines also illustrate that everything is
constantly changing all the time. These permanent fluctuations,
“Anatta”, are determined through five accumulations, such as: the
corporealation, the senses, the perception, the mind’s formation and
the consciousness. The human being consists of these accumulations
while being under constant change. What he is today, he does not
necessarily have to be tomorrow. At the very moment he says: “I”, he
has already changed, or as the proverb says: You never get into the
same river... It is the same with the ripples in the ocean; just
superficially observed they do not change while they drift over miles,
but in fact they consist of different drops of water constantly. Each
ripple is in exchange with every other ripple, because they all are
part of one and the same ocean.
Because the Lyrical I possesses a great and stunning feeling of unity,
the next verse contains the lines “Come, let us dance / The Dance of
Creation / Let us celebrate / The Joy of Life” (9-12). With this
invitation he expresses his joy of life. “The birds, the bees / The
infinite galaxies / Rivers, Mountains / Clouds and Valleys” (13-16) is
the enumeration the fourth verse starts with. Remarkable is the
capitalization in this context. The animals, as everyone knows, are
alive, and are written without capital letters, as well as the gigantic
galaxies. But parts of our world, like rivers, mountains, clouds and
valleys which everyone takes for granted and does not care about if
they are wounded or destroyed, are written with a capital letter. The
reason for that is given in the following lines: “Are all a pulsating
pattern / Living, breathing / Alive with cosmic energy” (17-19). The
field of all possibilities does not just contain human beings, animals
and plants, it also consists of everything in the world. When we pay
attention to a mountain, it changes from being in an unlocal universe
to the material world. Because everything is created by pure
consciousness, we are a part of that mountain as well as of everything
else. The wholeness of all material creation is nothing but the Self,
that on the basis of different characteristics experiences itself
through the attention it pays to itself.
The next two lines belong together: “Full of Live, of Joy / This
Universe of Mine” (20-21). Because of the concept described before, the
Lyrical I feels very connected to the world and that makes him feel
good. Being part of God, no one has to be scared: “Don’t be afraid / To
know who you are / You are much more / Than you ever imagined” (22-25).
To be worried about just the own life reduces one to a much smaller
level than one really has. Very few people think that they have some
connection with Earth itself. Of course, a little individual can be
scared by the thought of those dimensions, as one limited life is more
easy to grasp.
With the seventh verse the Lyrical I emphasizes again how far this
theory goes: “You are the Sun / You are the Moon / You are the
wildflower in the bloom / You are the Life-throb / That pulsates,
dances / From a speck of dust / To the most distant star” (26-32). Not
only the Earth is part of the unified field, but also things we do not
have any experience with – as far as we know – belong to the very same
pure consciousness.
The following verse is identical to the first one, though the lines
are divided a little differently here. Nevertheless the meaning gets
much clearer now: “And you and I / Were never separate / It’s just an
illusion / Wrought by the magical lens of / Perception” (33-37).
Because the reader of the poem is connected with everything, or more
concrete, is part of everything, he is part of the Lyrical I as well –
and vice versa, of course. But in our material world that does not make
a big difference because there is that “lens of perception”.
The next verse is a repetition, too, but the third verse: “Come, let
us dance / The Dance of Creation / Let us celebrate / The Joy of Life”
is reversed to the ninth: “Let us celebrate / The Joy of Life / Let us
dance / The Dance of Creation” (38-41). Again these lines contain the
invitation to enjoy life without fear and to feel the connection to the
world. Furthermore, the reader is told that he himself, being part of
the field of all possibilities, is able to create something. With the
picture of the Dance the author instructs the reader that everyone is
able to influence the world. “Curving back within ourselves / We
create” (42-43) is the guidance! In order to find out about the unified
field and to be able to change things for the better, one has to find
out about one’s nature by means of meditation.
“We create / Again and again / Endless cycles come and go” (43-45)
contain the idea that everything on earth happens in cycles: the year
with its four seasons obeys always the same scheme. It is the same with
high tide and low tide, with night and day, every month and life
itself. A dead body disintegrates and new life grows out of it. The
“Karma” that has lived in that body is subordinated to another cycle,
the cycle of reincarnation; it does not stop existing when the body
dies. One theory about reincarnation is the “Panchanividya”, the
Five-Fire-Teaching: When the body dies, “Karma” rises in form of light
to heaven where God puts it in the five sacrifice fires of heaven, of
air, of earth, of the male and female. This way it becomes Soma, which
is a holy drink, out of that it becomes rain, out of that it becomes
food, out of that it becomes sperm and out of that it finally becomes
an embryo. This explanation of what reincarnation is can be followed
back to the Vedian origins in India.
Thus there is so much time to influence world history and to be
carefree: “We rejoice / In the infinitude of Time” (46-47). “There
never was a time / When I was not / Or you were not / There never will
be a time / When we will cease to be” (48-52). The eleventh verse is a
more detailed explanation of reincarnation. Though one has no memory of
life before birth until the highest form of illumination is reached, we
have existed ever since consciousness has come into being, and we will
live on as long as consciousness exists, and that is eternity. The
lines “Infinite Unbounded / In the Ocean of Consciousness / We are like
ripples / In the Sea of Bliss” (53-56) convey that there is no limit
and that everything is possible.
The twelfth verse is kindred to the second, but it is not identical.
Here the main emphasis is on “bliss”, as life is not just endless, but
also wonderful. “Bliss” is the highest form of happiness, perfect
felicity and source of delight, heavenly joy. You do not need a reason
to be blissful, as it is one of the twenty-five qualities of the
unified field. It is the joy of life itself. Bliss is the source of
life. It is the expression of pure love. An individual who lives in the
state of bliss becomes the personification of love. This being does not
offer or deny love, he just shines and sparkles it. All one has to do
to experience that perfect form of life is to become totally aware of
the field of all possibilities really.
Thereafter, we find a repetition of the first verse, which is “You and
I were never separate / It’s just an illusion / Wrought by the magical
lens of / Perception” (57-60). In that context, this repetition also
implies that the things which the Lyrical I discovered can also be
found out by everybody else as well, as we all have the same conditions
and abilities. Maybe not everyone is able to reach illumination in that
topical life between birth and death, but in eternal life. Everyone can
start to walk the way towards “bliss”, now, for bliss is the original
and natural state and condition of everything, the world. “Heaven is
Here / Right now is the moment / of Eternity” (61-63). God’s Kingdom,
Paradise, Heaven, is what humankind waits for. Most people think they
will get there when they die. In fact, according to Buddha-Dharma their
“Karma” is confronted with pure consciousness “Nirvana” then, which
might be translated with “Heaven”.
But as long as they do not understand the coherence between life and
death, they will not be able to stay in Nirvana. Heaven should be
experienced in every moment, because the unified field is independent
of life and death, it is of overriding importance. To experience Heaven
means living in heavenly joy, Bliss. “Don’t fool yourself / Reclaim
your Bliss” (64-65). Actually Bliss is humankind’s most natural state
which only waits to be reclaimed, but unfortunately, most people do not
know about its existence. The lines “Once you were lost / But now
you’re home” (66-67) indicate that the knowledge that there is nothing
strange in the world, because everything is part of the same pure
consciousness oneself is part of, enables one to feel at home. This is
a feeling of familiarity and intimacy with everything, after having
felt lost and coming to nothing in the sense-of-life-search over years.
Now one gets leisured and calm with the discovery that the world we
live in is just designed by our specific “Perception”.
“There is nowhere to go / From Here to Here / Is the Unbounded / Ocean
of Consciousness / We are like ripples / In the Sea of Bliss” (69-74).
The last three verses are repetitions of verses interpreted before,
which are intended to convince the reader that the suggested,
introduced way is the right one. It is really very inviting to follow,
as its message is so positive and desirable:
“Come, let us dance / The Dance of Creation / Let us celebrate / The
Joy of Life // And / You and I were never separate / It’s just an
illusion / Wrought by the magical lens of / Perception // Heaven is
Here / Right now, this moment of Eternity / Don’t fool yourself /
Reclaim your Bliss” (75-87).
Before I come to an end, I want to illustrate another way of
interpreting the poem at hand:
As God is the field of all possibilities, it could be He Himself
talking to the reader, and maybe to the author as well. One reason for
that idea is the fact that the author has not just once claimed that he
is just the medium through which the songs – surely the poems as well –
flow. Another reason is that the poem allows that interpretation. God
tells mankind how to handle life or what He expects mankind to do. But
thinking that thought to an end, I realize that it does not matter if
it is God speaking or another human being, because God is part of that
being. This allows the conclusion that the unified field of all
possibilities, the pure consciousness is talking to itself.
