The Final Frontier…Is It Small Stuff?

Gene Roddenberry’s immortal words at the beginning of the original Star Trek television series, “The Final Frontier,” ushered in each episode of this timeless space odyssey. The final frontier referred to in Star Trek was space.

From an earthly perspective, space does indeed seem like the final frontier. We humans seem to have exhausted our exploration and discovery of planet earth. What’s next? Well, the final frontier of course! Space, outer space, the great mystery. What’s there? What’s really there? What have we to discover?

But what if there’s a different frontier to be explored and discovered? A frontier that offers us everything we ever imagined and ever wanted. What if this final frontier is actually staring us right in the face, metaphorically speaking.

This final frontier I am referring to came into focus during a period of tribulation. I was troubling myself with a situation that seemed rather significant and important. I felt I was faced with making a decision about how to handle the situation. After several days of pontification, I welcomed a teaching from Richard Carlson, Ph.D., to enter my awareness that brought me some peace. The teaching is, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. And remember, it’s all small stuff.”

As I laughed at myself, and how I allowed a situation to consume me. I was also reminded how powerful our minds are and how this frontier, the mind, may just be the ‘final frontier’ that Gene Roddenberry was referring to.

The mind is an extraordinary construct. It is also a rather persistent fabric of our imagination. In reality, in truth, there is no mind that is separate from the One Mind. But we have studied and practiced well the way of separative minds and thought. The more we practice using this illusory ‘mind,’ the more powerful it becomes. The more we turn to it for our very existence.

As many who have come before have realized, the mind may be our final frontier. The mind may be the final search, the final discovery. This illusory ‘mind’ may just be the last refuge and our doorway to peace. But it is not an understanding of the mind that is needed, it is the very thing the mind does not want us to do…to let it go.

And the ancient teachings know the method to letting go of the mind. The age-old practice of meditation is such a way. In meditation, we are given a window on ‘no thought.’ We are given a mirror on our mind. We are given an opportunity to simply observe our mind and its raucous nonsense and effervescent musings. When we practice the art of observing our mind in action, and we practice it consistently enough, we do begin to awaken to the teaching “Don’t sweat the small staff. And remember, it’s all small stuff.”

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.