Obviously, to share means to reach out, to break out of one's shell of isolation, of alienation, of a seemingly separate existence. Further, this reaching out has to be spontaneous, not demanded or forced. One has to feel comfortable with it. There maybe several experiences that we feel insecure about, where we feel more secure in our own comfortable, self-protective shell. One might feel vulnerable and exposed, to share everything one has experienced. On the other hand, there may be several experiences which one eagerly wishes to share. Essentially then, sharing should be a spontaneous outpouring of the heart that reaches out in joy and love.

There may be aspects of one's life which one may wish to share with only a few, maybe family or friends. There may be aspects that one can share with anyone. Sharing does not necessarily imply telling everything to everybody. Each one is entitled to one's privacy, to one's own values, one’s own thoughts and feelings. To share cannot mean a demand that everyone express an opinion. Sharing cannot be demanded or enforced. It can only be invited and received with love and affection, with mutual respect. Sharing does not demand, it merely reaches out with love and listens with patience. It does not seek to sit in judgement, to condemn or even correct, nor even to criticise. Sharing, to my mind, is to reach out in love to another and to receive the other in a spirit of oneness. It implies no claim to knowledge, wisdom, superiority or greatness. On the other hand, it implies an emptiness that is receptive to what another can give. It implies an empty cup willing to be filled with what another offers with love. It is a spontaneous reaching out and receptivity to love.

Man is a thinking animal. He therefore tends to think more than he feels. This, in fact, may be at the very root of our many problems - our discontent, our insecurity and conflict. Thought itself is based on the notion of a separate thinker. The fact of a separate entity that is thinking is a tacit assumption of all thought. It, therefore, presupposes separation between the thinker and the rest of creation, between the thinker and the thought, between subject and object. Thought demands a pattern it labels as logic or reason and rejects all that does not fall into this limited pattern as absurd. Therefore, the thought process may actually be man's greatest barrier to the discovery of his own awareness.

Herein lies the importance of feeling, the subtle, gentle and often hidden impulses from our heart and those faint stirrings from the depths of our own consciousness. These are often merely felt, may defy expression, logic and verbalisation. Yet, these gentle signals from deep within us might be the language of the infinite intelligence that makes life meaningful, the source of all love, peace and joy. Are we quiet enough to listen to the gentle stirrings of our own soul? Are we sensitive and gentle, loving in our response to these gentle stirrings? Or, are we turning a deaf ear in the vanity of our own accumulated notions, in the sterile patterns of our own limited and repetitive reasoning and intelligence? Can we empty our mind of its accumulated notions to abide in a stillness where we can feel and respond to the loving stirrings from the soul?

I do not refer to soul as a magical, metaphysical entity that outlives the body. I talk of it as the light of infinite intelligence that enables our very ability to be aware, that substratum of consciousness that enables continuity of experience, that witnesses the interplay of the pairs of opposites in our life - joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure. I refer to it as the unseen observer who is present in our every observation, in our every experience.

To my mind, sharing lies in meeting at the level of oneness, in a continuum of consciousness, where both feel the unreality of separation between you and me. It is like the point when two waves crash against each other in a movement that encompasses and transcends both. In this magic meeting, our separateness is overcome and we abide in the joy and bliss of sharing. All of us experience this feeling of reaching out and welcoming with love within various relationships - maybe with a spouse, a lover, a child, a parent, a teacher or a friend. Here again, the specific activity or person that we share with is secondary. What is of the greatest importance is that we reach out and receive in love, in a celebration of oneness that is sharing.

We might and many of us do share with animals, with a pet. We may give and receive love unconditionally, joyously, in recognition of oneness and joy. We may share with a plant, watering it with love. We may share with a stranger with a spontaneous smile or nod. We may share with a small child, with a hug or laughter. We can share with the young and the old, men and women, humans or animals, rich or poor - through language or through touch, through laughter or through tears. One might even share one's togetherness with another in silence and stillness, in the unconditional acceptance of the way things are. In the spontaneous giving and receiving of love in a million different ways is sharing.

As our civilisations progress, as man gets lost in materialistic pursuits, as we increase the separation between ourselves and nature and between each other, as each individual gets buried in his own little cocoon, isolated and alienated from another, as the harshness and conflict, the competitiveness of the world often stares us in the face and overtakes us, as it often threatens to overwhelm us, in this moment, where it may seem least deserving, it is needed most - a spontaneous receptivity and reaching out with love. Now, more than ever, we need to communicate and share. In the devastating isolation and alienation of our concrete jungles, in the oppressive burden of competition and conflict, we need more than ever the spontaneity, the stillness, the emptiness and the receptivity that will enable us to give and receive with love. What we give and receive is secondary, what is important is that we give and receive with love, in a sharing that celebrates our essential oneness. To live is to share and to share is to celebrate our oneness with love.