We are born into a universe of exchange, always bathing in a host of light, vibration, and sound, produced by an exchange of infinite bodies that are a part of our reality, both visible and invisible.

But how aware am I -- in my body, in my life -- that everything exists as it does for me, even my very breath, because there's an exchange taking place?

The answer is, I'm not aware. I have certain goods I'm not even aware of until I want to barter with them: Get you to like me. Go buy something for what I've done. Then I'm interested in exchange. And I always want the upper hand in the exchange. I want to come out on top. Because for us, that's part of what exchange is: Profiting!

The actual meaning of the word "profit" is to ascend to what is good, but we are also born with a mind and a certain order of our nature that doesn't "get" that at all. Why? Because according to me, you don't get it! If you got it, you'd be exchanging what I want you to exchange. Then we'd have peace. And who's at peace when you're arguing about what's to be exchanged?

Nobody's at peace! Because nobody lives in the exchange that is peace. That's what love is. That's where freedom is. That's where unity sits, moment to moment, and we are created to live there and to be a bridge so that in the offering of ourselves, in the proper relationship with that moment, not only does our physical life take on a completely different relationship to our experiences, but we actually begin to live in that world where time no longer consumes and ravages everything we know.

If we're going to know and share in the life of the Divine, it's mandatory that exchange become second nature to us -- so that we understand when a disturbance comes, it comes as a gift to transform us by taking part in this beautiful exchange that's being offered to us, or to resist and resent the very thing that has come to offer us the exchange.

Life is saying, "Would you like to exchange this negativity generated in you? Can I show you a different order of yourself? Will you give that up?" And if you accept the gift, a passive exchange takes place in which you allow the event to reveal what it does. You make the exchange.

And what's the exchange? You choose to suffer something differently. You choose to suffer the fact that there's something in you that's clinging tooth and nail to the identity that believes it's perfect, it can't do wrong. And you allow the light that is produced by the entrance of that energy into you to make the exchange for you. Not my will but thy will be done. And one dies, in a manner of speaking, to that nature.

Or there's an active exchange. How many of you rush? Why does one rush? To reach imagined contentment. To reach imagined peace. That's why one rushes, to get through this to get to that. I'm in the hands of something, a mind that is telling me I have to get there in order to be free of the way I feel now. So an exchange is taking place that profits nothing, and I descend.

The active exchange in that moment is to recognize there is this pressure in me, this angst, and I am going to deliberately make the exchange. I'm going to slow down. I'm going to do the opposite. That's what conscious exchange is about... doing the opposite.

We are offered in so many ways to see the fact that the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of conscious exchange, governed by Love. How do you get there? Be where you are. Be willing to make the exchange.

There will be suffering in it. Do you think it was a party for anyone who has ever gone through what they did in order to discover authenticity? It's not. But take the difficult road, and you come to a road that is never difficult again, because even going into it, you understand the goodness, the beauty, and the truth of making the exchange that you're on this earth to do.