This is our second morning at Edisto Island, SC. As I did my dawn nature meditation my attention went to a gap between the trees that afforded a “peephole” to the distant marshes. Suddenly I was transported beyond the limiting confines of what immediately surrounded me– the trees and hanging Spanish moss– to the sense of almost infinite expansion. Then, as I became aware of the details of a distant building which appeared in the same peephole, in front of the marshes, with the dawn light painting golden, expanding patterns on it, I realized that I can be aware of details and be at the same time in an expanded state. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Then I listened to the diverse and engaging calls of birds, noticing that the sounds of the birds were different than during yesterday’s dawn. I listened to the particular sounds but not losing the sense of expansion. I was aware of the space which embraced the particular sounds. In both sight and hearing I was able to perceive the particular and the expanded.

I remembered that Anda talks about this when she describes her artistic process.

I am discovering that it is indeed possible to have what is called shiva drishti, open-eyed meditation. That I can be Self-aware even as I behold the world around me. This is what is meant by the term “entering the void with the eyes open.” We are able to behold the world from our own divine center. We can come to behold the world as not different than God.

To perceive heaven on earth is unity awareness– it comes from an inner realization independent of a particular location. Places like Edisto Island, however, seem to roll out a red carpet for this awareness to dawn.