One of the definitions of subject according to my Merriam Webster app on my phone is “that of which a quality, attribute, or relation may be affirmed or in which it may inhere.” We are subjects in life, not the objects that we imagine ourselves to be. We are “inherently” spirits being. We aren’t separate bodies moving around until the music we’re dancing to stops. We don’t have a life, we are life. We don’t lose a life; there is nothing to lose. All else is an illusion. As Thoreau has said, “The world is but a canvas to the imagination.” We bring essence to life experience in how we express who we are.
What does it mean to be a subject? As subject, we let go of the imagined need to know happiness; we experience joy in the present moment, because in the consciousness of now there is deep abiding peace. As an object we would believe that happiness, even joy lies outside of the self, so we would desperately seek it somewhere else. But sometimes we miss the joy of the moment because of our relentless search for that which we already have. We look for the right conditions, the right person, the right career, the right amount of money, and we are often disappointed. Like fish in the ocean looking for water, we are fed continually as the spirits being who we are. We think love is something we receive or give, but we are love. To paraphrase a Gandhi statement, “Be the love you want to see in the world.”
John Stuart Mill captures the state of illusion that occurs when we see ourselves as objects rather than subjects. He said, ” Ask yourself if you are happy, and you cease to be.” By asking yourself the question, you have made yourself an object, not the aware, conscious spiritual energy that you are. Happiness is a reflection in the mirror, an afterthought, based on a memory of some event that we now regard as happy. Joy is present in the now, always and eternally present. We realize who we really are in the stillness of consciousness. We can be happy, joyful and at peace as subject, whose very essence creates the possibility of life expression. Zen expresses this notion exquisitely: If a tree falls in the forest, it does not make a sound unless we hear it. Nature is a gift if we are here to witness it.
Own your state of being “subject.” Settle into the stillness of being and know that you are love, joy, peace and beauty – a veritable blessing in the universal mind.