How are you?....Forgiving..:)

.".They did this to me". Do you think that is right?? Or just?? Or fair?"
He ( or she) said this or that...true or not true...with malice or without....
We want people to understand what happened to us, what we felt...what we feel and to agree with us in our anger, in our resistance...in our negative emotion.  


It doesn't really matter who, or why....pain is pain.  The only real answer for pain is forgivness.  It is the grace of God in this time space reality.  We are human.  We do the dance between the spirit and the natural.  The spirit never needs forgivness.  It knows you (and they) are perfect...it is our natural (ego) mind that cannot grasp that...it lives in the world of polarized choices, right and wrong, up and down, good and bad.... so forgivness is the bridge for us.

Forgiveness will allow you to walk in peace. To live in peace. But in order for this to happen, you must want peace, the peace of God....peace that passes understanding..... more than you want to be right....more than you want to feel the sense of power that comes from anger.


The ego wants to be right (to feel powerful) and doesn't care if you are miserable or alone in your self-righteousness. You are not any more 'right" than your brother or any more "wrong" either. An argument comes because one has identified with a thought construct and has identified themselves with it. So now they must defend it. If they lose, if they are wrong...it threatens them. They are "losing" something".

We can sometimes deceive ourselves into thinking we have forgiven.


 We can say the appropriate things and think we feel rather neutral. But secretly we would be happy or pleased if something bad ( not terrible perhaps) just "bad".. happened to the offender. We want "our pound of flesh". We want to punish...or see them punished...or have them suffer...to some degree. 


When asked we might say that we aren't angry, we have forgiven...we just don't want to do have anything to do with them in any context. There is a good litmus test for those situations....anytime you really want to know if you have forgiven, imagine blessing that person, imagine them coming into money or having some unexpected good coming to them....how does that thought feel to you? If you can say "yes!" and even align your energy for that blessing, you have truly forgiven and it no longer holds places of your heart hostage.

You see, your lack of forgiveness, complete forgiveness, hinders, blocks, and hurts...only you. Well, that is not entirely accurate ...as all our thoughts and feelings effect others and we are either adding to the toxic mass or the uplifting energy...it does effect more than just you. But, the negative effect on you is much more substantial. There are parts of you that are not free, not able to be rejoined with the whole of you...you cannot really love freely...anyone...with unforgiveness binding up your heart energies.

Most people have someone or some situation come to mind when asked who they might forgive...What don't you like that has happened to you?.
 .... A person, something they did to you...on purpose or accidentally... ignorantly or with malice....large, long term...small incidental (it doesn't matter)or

..... a situation like the decline of the economy, the company layoffs, rain on your special day, your car breaks down..the death of your pet....illness....your job..losing your phone

....the past..yes, you can forgive the past...

......the future. ............even God.

If you think about this for a minute you can see that anything we don't like...that we react negatively to...that our emotions, our mind says..."No" I don't want it to be that way......means at some point we need to release that judgment.  Release the judgment and all the energies that it creates within.

So we can slip into" forgetfulness" or what I call "the dream" of our waking life....and have an encounter with another driver that takes less than 10 seconds...and we find we are angry...forgiveness is the way back. Forgiveness not just for the other but for yourself. Forgive yourself for taking the bait. They didn't intentionally bait you, but they did bait you and because you were lost in the dream you took the bait. You may even say " I knew better!!" "I knew better". Yes, but you were not awake. So it didn't matter what you "knew". You couldn't have remembered it because you were lost in the dream.

So as you think about "how you are"...what has happened to you, around you, in your life circumstances that has created feelings in you...begin to see that you do have a goal...you do want to release anything that holds you back from the joy that is in you. You really do want to release every negative thought, and feeling about every person, place or thing you have felt, big or small, new or old. Forgiveness is not something we do a couple of times or even several times in our lives...or only when we are really wounded...it is something we do daily...every time we forget...we release, we return....we walk the path of forgiveness...we walk the bridge back to our higher, freer more loving, more open selves. We walk the bridge back consciously to the place where love awaits.

So "how am I doing?.....I have experienced ups and downs and am as always.... forgiving....:)

Think on these.....breathe and smile into yourself, into your tired, worried unhappy, troubled places and breathe and hold them in love so they can be released. They are not "who you are"...they are streams (emotions) you have experienced or are experiencing.....love covers them all...beginning with you...yourself......release them...no fear...no fear.....breathe,,,
.....let them go.....

Breathe....and smile......

Selah....

A Moment by Moment Opportunity Expanded.....

Our minds move from one subject to another, from one level of consciousness to another...often...when we are awake just as when we sleep. We always have the opportunity to see right where we actually are.  That might sound like an easy thing to determine, but often, we are not as aware of where we are as we might think.

The opportunity to stop...... in one moment........look around..........see what you see exactly as it is....

....and say, "This is Life in its perfection."   How do you feel as you say that?   Now please realize this is not the same thing as reviewing everything we think about the things we are seeing or remembering and then saying "that" is perfect. 

Just now......just now.....right now..."what in this moment lacking? "   In this exact moment....not in 10 minutes or tomorrow or yesterday or even 15 minutes ago........but this moment.  What is lacking in this moment?

As you speak those words, your mind is blank......and you can feel yourself shift.  You are actually shifting from one awareness to another, one level of consiousness to another. 

Remember that the mind cannot grasp this level of awareness.  So when you feel you are having a "hard" time getting there, you can be sure you are trying to understand it, think about it...adjust it, figure it out...instead of just being with it. This level is not "in time"...is not an object of our consciousness. It is just a few seconds of "no time".....or we could say of eternity.  Eternity is not time that goes on for forever, eternity is outside of time.... it is "no time". .

Some may say that they are focused on the present moment and that this moment for them is bad and they are unhappy and to think otherwise is to deceive themselves.  The future may be better and they are trying to be slightly hopeful.   If this is you...you really think you are focused in the present but you are actually still focused on the past.  Something did not turn out as you wanted it to (large or small, it doesn't matter) and you haven't accepted that and the hope it will be better tomorrow is not being present either.  So you are missing this moment....

...You are living your life behind a "screen of mind"...of thoughts that have obscured this moment.  This screen separates you from others and from yourself and from the joy of our own being.  It separates you from the beauty that is present all around you.

This moment....now...is here....this is perfection.....  this is perfection. 

Not your commentary on it, not your interpretations or even your labeling of it........no words...just look… breathe...it is......

Go ahead.....try it right now......ride the wave....say "Yes!"...

.....it couldn't be any other way....see it all unfold before you in its perfection.

It is so beautiful...it doesn't matter if you forgot about it all day...if you have been in forgetfulness for a minute or a month .....each moment is new...and you can, at any moment....be here...:) smile...breathe......

selah

Peace and Personal Drama.....

We have all heard about "drama" in relationships and most people agree they don't want any.  There is also a personal drama.  You can have drama all on your own.

Guilt is personal drama.  Self pity is personal drama.  Yes, even anxiety is personal drama.  Any rehearsal of negative thinking corresponding to the negative emotions is a form of personal drama.  We make our own.

Some call this drama passion. Passion sounds much better to our rational thinking. We even think we want passion because no passion is dull, right?  If we had no passion then we would become auto bots.  Not so...this confusion happens in our understanding of the word passion.  Passion can mean strong anger, love, lust or sexual desire and also means boundless enthusiasm.  Even the sufferings of Jesus from the last supper on is called the Passion. 

You can feel pain...pain of loss, pain of another's suffering and still have peace.  Your emotions are not your state of being.  Your state of being...peace...is ....and always is....you just are not always aware of it....and emotions can travel thru it.   A wave of grief.sorrow, anger or desire......all can come and go in a relatively short period of time...but the peace remains.

Why is it that we feel something for as long as we do? Our minds create an unnatural connection to the emotion.  We pick it up and begin to think through it.  Our thoughts feed it. When an emotion is rehearsed...it gets stuck so to speak...release is needed.  Emotions are designed to be released...not rehearsed.  Often, it requires forgiveness to find this release. Remember by this time, our ego has invested itself in certain aspects of what we are dealing with.  We even have solid thought constructs...runways, for the thought to have the right to be rehearsed. Like, “No one should be allowed to do that!"  "This is just wrong!" "I am done being used!  I am going to fight back!" " I am so miserable and have been miserable for years "(months...days...you put in the appropriate word).." I have never felt like this, I must do...(whatever)... ..In fact, we find ourselves looking at present occurring circumstances to justify and build the case to hold the grievance, our negative thoughts.  After all, we all have the right to defend ourselves, right?!  After all, we are only human.  They all sound reasonable don't they? 

Once we reach this point, we have fully bought into the stream of self pity...of the need to experience pain, or inflict it, need to be right...It is all some drama that seeks to justify  itself so that we may continue the thoughts and thereby keep it alive.  In fact, we may even cause it to grow.  We have totally identified ourselves as the set of feelings and thoughts we are in.

The way out?  We can come to understand that having an emotion come and go is not really "how we are". Any more than when we have an upset stomach, we do not think that is “who we are”.  We think it is happening within us.  Now, it is true that if we have a stomach pain that continues, we develop thought constructs around it and it can become part of our self identify...who we are, at least we think so.  It is only our thoughts that did this.  Our way of thinking.

 I felt compassion today when I saw a young mother trying to shop with her distressed two year old.  She did not have the understanding or awareness to realize what she was doing and how hurtful it could be.    But how "I" am is peaceful... How I relate to my circumstances is not how I relate to Life.  I am life...how I relate to my body or my appearance or my finances, or this lady and her child,...these are all circumstances that this form has....but "I" am the animating energy within.  The circumstances can all change. In fact, it is a sure thing, they will...change.  How I related to the young woman was to smile at her and make a loving comment about the challenge she faced.  She smiled and sighed. All of Life's forms are impermanent.  So, by definition are unstable....always shifting and changing.  They pass....they pass....

Don't berate yourself...or them...you each did the best you know how in that moment.  You did...and believe it or not...what you did was perfect...you could have done nothing else.  You are not an isolated collection of atoms operating independently in this time space reality altho your mind would like to tell you that you are.  You are connected to a great cosmos.  You can open yourself up to Life and flow with it.  That is where you will truly "find yourself". Does that mean you can't change things, circumstances?  No, of course not...but then your change is a positive one...an action reaching out in love (with positive energy) not a defensive one rejecting or trying to get away from something you wish to resist or dislike.  Reaching toward..... not fighting against. 

 You hurt. Loss is painful.  You grieve ...yet still you can have peace deep down within.  The storms of life are like the surface of the waters.  Sometimes rough, sometimes pleasant...but always deep  down in the water, it is still and peaceful.. Remember You are not the laughter, the tears...you are not just the form that is expereincing those things...you are the conscious that animates your form.  You are....Life itself.

Nothing is actually...wrong....can you see yourself moving from one thing to another , one circumstance to another, because you wish to have more of the beauty, the joy, the love ...not as a reaction.  Not to avoid the bad..not to conquer anything (much less the world). Don't carry a feeling, rehearsing it until it becomes a personal problem.  You are creating your own drama.  Your mind made it so......

You are whole and complete, you are peace............  that peace that passes all understanding (thoughts) ....you have no problems, situations, yes...but problems require your mind to make the situations into a problem. 

Say these words

I have no problems...none...I am free,,,,,here in this moment.....

What in this moment is lacking?

.....lean back....smile and ......breathe......

selah.....

Instead Of Why...Go For The Goodness

We mortals, that we are, want very much to have reasons for what we do.  Reasons for what happens to us, reasons for everything.  In fact, the more difficult the experience is, the more vital we think it is to understand why.  If we can know "why" we believe, somehow that will make the difference in our being able to adjust. Now...if the experience is terribly traumatic, it can be important to have some understanding of it so it doesn't fall into the "senseless" category because that makes us feel even more of a victim.  If there is at least some reason...even a poor one, we feel a little less hurt.

I am not especially talking about the how's of science...why does water freeze in some situations and not in others/? Not that kind of question.  I am referring to the “why did this happen to me”  Why was there a car wreck?  Why did he die?  Why did he have to get cancer?  Why do I feel this way?  Why?  Why?  Why?

As we evolve, we learn to ask ourselves, "why" - Why did I do that? Or what is beneath the conversation?  Why am I acting this way?  Understanding what is going on in the deeper areas of ourselves is vital to mature conscious development. 

Really...though...I want you to hear a deeper truth on this subject.  It is our natural mind that wants this explanation.  We want all things to make sense, to be justifiable and generally predictable.  That way, we will be safe.  We will know what is coming to us and if we handle it well, we win.  This is a false assumption.  Things unfold as they must.  The connections that exist (that we are unaware of) effect and change things continually.  Let's take a look...imagine two cars...running into each other at an intersection.  If one had been 30 seconds slower.  If  the driver had left 30 seconds earlier.  If the other driver hadn't stopped for a coffee.  If the bus one was following hadn't been so slow.  If they had gone to work that day, had that job, lived in that part of town, married that man, etc etc etc.  We pick out the most obvious...if they both looked... there is no one to blame...but we will continue to look for someone or something to blame even if it is the weather or a nonexistent stop sign.  The truth is, we don't know why...can't know why it happened...we can't ever really know why.  We just find some sort of explanation that works for us to maintain ourselves and our concepts of the world and go from there.

Even when we are sure we know why we are doing something........we don't know, not really.  We may later say, "You know, I realized that wasn't really what was happening in me, I see now it was_________".  It is not what the reason is that matters, but that we have accepted the idea that if we know why, it is easier.  That construct is very common as we are mind based creatures.  Could we actually say, it happened as it had to happen?  The way anything unfolds is never a fluke, so to speak... it is life unfolding before us...perfectly...and we can flow with it if we choose to... In our human minds we want to "understand" but God, the universe, cannot be "understood"...it cannot be defined and explained by the forms in our minds.  By definition, those forms are thought forms and life is bigger than those forms, than any forms.  It cannot be contained within those forms. We cannot grasp it...not contain it....not control it...we can accept it and flow with it... we can find joy in our connection.

So think on this idea...for a moment....it is not only that we don't "get" to know why...not really...it is that we "can't" know why.  You are, we are, not able to know.  The world, the cosmos, is so vast and all connected and intertwined in ways we can't begin to imagine. Where does that leave us?  Almost paralyzed unless we can learn to trust in the is-ness of life.

Don't berate yourself...or them...you did the best you knew how in that moment.  You did...and believe it or not...what you did was perfect...you could have done nothing else.  You are not an isolated collection of atoms operating independently in this time space reality although your mind would like to tell you that you are.  You are connected to, part of a great cosmos.  You can open yourself up to life and flow with it.

Does that mean you can't change things?  No, of course not...being open in that moment and moving ahead with change is in fact, much more successful than resisting what you see and trying to attack it to change it.  One flows in positive energy, the other in negative.  Don't be against war...be for peace.  Opening to Life as it is and creating...as you go... then your change is a positive one...an action reaching out in love not a defensive one rejecting or trying to get away from something bad.  Reaching toward - not fighting against.

 No good reason "why" can seem to make great pain, great loss hurt more.  It doesn't.  It is your thought about it that does that.  You hurt.  Loss is painful.  You grieve ...yet still you can have peace.... deep down within.  The storms of life are like the surface of the waters.  Sometimes rough, sometimes pleasant...but always deep down in the water, it is still and peaceful..

Nothing is actually...wrong....it (what "it" is) can be lifted, healed, opened up, renewed, even disassembled for a new structure to be built in its place.  Can you see yourself moving from one thing to another because you wish to have more of the beauty, the joy, the love ...not as a reaction to the negative?

See the goodness and go for the goodness......

Breathe......smile..............

Welcome Home!

The last month has flown by...even with my stopping to breathe and be present!

I had a wonderful time in Costa Rica...and plan to return next year...it was warm, full of the warmth of the earth and abundant in deep beautiful strong colors.

I wanted to remind you that it does not matter "how you are doing".  What I mean is, we measure, compare, assess how we are doing that day. Or that  week.  And we have internal yard sticks that say, "I should be doing better" or "I did really well yesterday, what just happened?!"  And we try to comfort ourselves using these words...but please realize that when we compare, we lose.  It does not matter what you did ten minutes ago.  If you"took the bait" and got yourself all jerked around, lost your footing and crashed.  It does not matter.

It takes one breath to come home...and there is no," how long have you been "good", or "done well" or been present.....it only matters this particular point in time.  We are so used to needing to suffer for our errors, mistakes or sins or whatever words you like to use, that it is hard for us to say.."I'm Home and as of this moment, I am completely perfect, whole and beautiful.".......

You aways are perfect, whole, and beautiful....and when you are feeling miserable or unhappy you are believing something about yourself that is not true.  You are going to have to agree with God...with the universe, in order to have lasting peace and joy.

....We say....if I work at it I will get better at this....that is mistaken on several levels.  First, it is not work...it is your natural way of being!  Second, it is not something you achieve or master...you cannot put your mind around it...you cannot even understand it...you are in it or not....and no matter how long you meditate or pray...or what visions you see....the benefits that are yours are only activated when YOU are  Home.  So five minutes ago....I lost my mind...but now...move on over....I am coming home!!

Run there...let it all go....let it go......let it go.....surrender all your worries, your fears, your issues...your problems...your story....and breathe......smile......

Remember who you are...really, down deep...or your higher self....Atman or Christ within.....by whatever word...you are home.....

.........welcome  :)

A Moment by Moment Opportunity

As our minds move from one subject to another, from one level of consciousness to another...we always have the opportunity to see right where we actually are.  That might sound like an easy thing to determine, but often, we are not as aware of where we are as we might think.

The opportunity to  stop, in one moment, look at everything, exactly as it is...and say, this is Life in its perfection.  How do you feel as you say that?   Realize this is not the same thing as reviewing everything we think about things and then saying "that" is perfect.  Just now...right now..."what in this moment is lacking? " Not in 10 minutes or tomorrow or yesterday or even 15 minutes ago...but this moment.  What is lacking in this moment?

As you hold that thought, you can feel yourself shift.  Remember that the mind cannot grasp this level of awareness.  So when you feel you are having a "hard" time getting there, you can be sure you are trying to understand it, think about it...adjust, figure it out...instead of just being.

You may say that you are focused on the present moment but that it is bad, you are unhappy and to think otherwise is to deceive yourself.  The future may be better, so you are slightly hopeful.  You think you are focused in the present but you are actually still focused on the past.  Something did not turn out as you wanted it to (large or small, doesn't matter) and you haven't accepted that and the hope that it will be better tomorrow is not being present either.  So you are missing this moment....

...You are living your life behind a screen of mind...of thoughts that have obscured this moment.  This screen separates you from others and from yourself and from the joy of your own being.

This moment....now...is here....this is perfection.....  this is perfection. Not your commentary on it, not you interpretations or rationales....no words...just look, breathe...it is...... Go ahead...ride the wave....say "Yes!"....it couldn't be any other way....see it all unfold before you in its perfection.

It is so beautiful...it doesn't matter if you forgot about it all day...each moment is new...and you can at any moment....be here...:) smile...breathe......

selah

Balance Means Awareness of Both Dimensions

Balance means awareness of both dimensions.


Dimension can be used meaning several different things. Some may think that I operate in my own dimension...a little off of center.  And then there is conversation about levels of consciousness as dimensions.  I think saying, in all of life in this time-space reality there are only two dimensions, is a good way to get my point across.  Giving equal time to both creates the balance in this reality we are looking for. So what are they?


When you look outside into the night sky, you see them...objects ( stars, bright pin points of light, perhaps a moon) and space...  the manifested, that is something that can be seen, an object, a form of some kind.... and you see something that cannot be seen, the unmanifested, space. 


You don't actually "see" it, you become aware of it. Two dimensions....the form and the formless.....  It is the form that makes the  formless visible to us.   The further apart the things (the forms) are, the more nothingness we perceive.  


The night sky is a good example because you cannot look into it without a feeling of .......what is that feeling?  We look for the words....the answer cannot be found there.... actually you are feeling the essence of who you are.  


You are connecting, experiencing the unmanifested...The vastness, the space out there is connected to the space, the vastness within you.  In that second you feel peace, space...vastness and more peace...so much it creates a sense of wonder which then often we go off mentally trying to locate..."Imagine how far those stars really are",  Isn't the moon beautiful?" ," Makes me feel good to look at such beauty"........etc.


Seeing the vastness of space is a good place to connect.....to yourself.....to the peace that is within you.  Another good place is walking in nature...in the quiet of a forest..... when you stop letting the mind run you continually with thought after thought after thought , form after form, always wanting more...more to complete me...more to improve or change my story...more, more, more...not quite there yet....more...I need more.....


When this chatter stops....you are fully alert and can sense your connection to all that is...to the universe...to the unmanifested....to God.


Using the word "God" creates a problem for some...they have made God an object of thought and don't like what happened in relation to the thought....so let's say...infiniteness....this vastness cannot be contained by thought forms, by words...It cannot be made an object.....


This infiniteness is within you...the rest you seek is within.....the only true completeness is within you already.


Do less, go less....but most important of all, think less.....when you need to think, you can, it is still there...but it does not run from one thing to the next to the next to the next until we must sedate it to sleep or else drop into bed exhausted and sleep before we hit the pillow.


You ARE and that must come before you are this or you are that.....
keep some attention....some awareness on the deeper, truer thing that will never led you astray...never take you on a roller coaster....settle down into yourself....and be still......


The craziness of the world comes from no awareness of the 2nd dimension.  They are totally focused on the manifested, the object, and are preoccupied with it at all times. We see how difficult it can be for one to be still. Say "yes" and breathe in life...this moment...without thought...just open up to it and say "yes".


Balance means along with our preoccupation with forms of every kind (including thought forms), we also pay attention to the stillness........the silence........the vastness.........and feel its  connection to you and you to it......it is you....


Knowing we can never define it........words and languages are a small part of the manifested trying to encompass the infinite.......can't be done...in fact, it is actually humorous that we try and insist it can be.


Well, at least with infiniteness, we will never say, "My infiniteness is the true infiniteness and your infiniteness is false"...:)


Can you pay attention to the stillness?  Sit quietly...and try to listen...and still  your mind.  
Don't accept that meditation just doesn't work for you...that is the same as saying that eliminating confusion just doesn't work for you. 


Even one moment...just one...one breath...done in awareness, done many times over..... in the course of a day will transform the experience of your life.


You are wanting what you can reveal to yourself........insights will come,..... patience doesn't have to be gained thru suffering................ oh and your rapidly firing mind frequently fueled by your body is never going to tell you exactly what the problem is because the problem is your rapidly firing mind...


When you look out at the clouds, look also at the spaces in between...let your awareness dwell there momentarily.  


Look inbetween the trees and let it sink into you....


When you are listening to someone speak, listen to the silence that is between the words and underneath the words. 


Hear the silence that carries the musical note.....   Be aware of what around you is unmanifested.



I don't have to encourage you to look at the manifested, the mind does this automatically.  


Step out of time just for moment....and "come home"to yourself.


Breathe....smile and say "Yes" to the space in your room,be aware of it.....listen... breathe again....


selah....

The Clay Pot

Your body and all that was "made"( formed) concerning you  I liken to a clay pot. Your pot was made, you were not.  Science can actually pin point the moment a form (the pot) began to take shape that was later named a name. From that moment on, your pot developed and grew.  The endless genetic strands you carry  would take more than 1000 volumes of 1000 pages each to write out are part of your unique pot.  Your eye color and height and skin color are all biological and part of your pot.  Being male or female is part of your pot. Science is even discovering a great deal more of your behavior and thoughts come from your genetics.....Your pot.  Your pot is truly is amazing.

Then everything (besides genetics) that shapes the mind and body is also part of your pot.  How your parents related to you and how you perceived them all becomes part of your pot...all influences it.  Your pot holds residual effects of all your experiences.

The pot develops neropathways, habits, skills and attributes.   The pot learns, likes, dislikes, has fears and desires. The pot is important. In some ways are poys are so similiar that we can say what is normal for a pot to feel as it develops.  That is all part of being in a pot. Learning and developing throughout the stages of a human life to be competent, productive, creative and joyful has significant value.  We have seen a huge revolution is learning to love the pot..."I'm OK, your OK"...and we all know intuitively that feeling positive about our pots feels better than not.  But the real truth is that while the pot is important to us in this time space reality....it is NOT who we are.

 You know you have a body.  You can see it, feel it, smell it and taste it.  You have known this almost since birth...certainly by two years old.  So you identified your "I ness" with your body and your name.  First "me"...then "I" is Johnny.  That is my name and in your psyche you identify that name with who you are.  Then just as your hands are "mine", you are given things and told that they are yours...which you translate as "mine" (part of who I am)  Very young children do not grasp the difference between owning something and it being part of who they are (and rarely have it explained to them) so it is normal to think of things as  who they are.or at least part of who we are.  In fact, we can easily see today those who are so pleased with the expensive status symbol because it causes them to feel "more", and strengthens their self identity as one who is smart, successful, powerful, rich....(whatever)  even as adults.

Our self identity continues to expand in childhood and on into adolescence past how old we are, what we own (toys we have), where our mommie is, what pets we have and move on to our personal characteristics.  We see ( or perceive) ourselves as warm or friendly, as a talker, a thinker, analytical, light hearted, stable, disorganized...........desirable or undesirable.  If you stop right now you can easily name several characteristics about who you perceive yourself to be, you would say it something like, " I am generally a light hearted person", or "I am a person who likes deep discussions, that is who I am".  These are really descriptions of your pot....not you.  We think our interests or skills are who we are.  I love basket ball, I play basketball...I am a professional basketball player, that is now who I am .  This last stage moves to roles.  I am a mom, a wife...an American, a husband, a boss,...a traitor...a nerd...a jock...a grandmother...a hero..and we identify ourselves with our roles.    This can become crucial to us in our lifetimes.




Then, of course, there are all the conflicts with what we perceive is being asked of us (what our culture, history or family expects and even ourselves ) and who we perceive ourselves to be.  I keep saying "perceive ourselves to be" because that is all it is ... a perception.  But in the Dream is it termed and thought of as who I am.

We may have periods in our lives when we are aware we are suffering distress because we don't know who we are anymore.  Something has become outdated, been lost, left us, or our own actions have so conflicted with the perception of who we are that we suffer confusion.

 Confusion can be a very good thing....it can mean that an old perception, construct (dream or story) is being dissembled and we don't know yet what is coming up in it's place.  Then perhaps we go to a slightly higher dimension of thought ( or drop down further into our ourselves) to search out who we are....perhaps we study the meanings, ancient systems, of our names, the numbers associated with our birth, what those who have studied the stars say about us, many mystic ideas.  We begin to look at the archetypes.  We see how they are common to mankind and how we are connected to energies much bigger and emcompassing than we previously thought. Just as we can see the development of the body and what goes with it, in our emotions and thoughts, we can see how the development of the personaility or soul has many common elements in it.   This is very helpful to shift us when we are "stuck".


Since a pot is a form and it can be destroyed, lost, broken or damaged.  It can die.  So the predominant emotion of the pot is fear. It can be "no more".  So all it's life the pot wants "more"..either  to enhance itself in its own eyes or just to avoid being still, out of time.  It needs to be bigger, better, achieve more because it is not able to look at itself and say "I am perfect and needn't do a thing"...it is only the spirit that can say such a thing.
The stillness where one discovers the depth within is threatening to the mind of the pot.  It will perceive it as "boring" or "useless" or "not working for me" or just "later"..."not now"...anything .........It is normal that the pot does all this. It is the way of the mind of the pot...or pot thinking...

 We do need to know and understand our own clay pot.  We need to be aware of what is working in us, of our history, of our natural tendencies.  We need to accept them and forgive them, appreciate and be amused by them.... and relate to them with wisdom.  The greatest difficulty comes  when we think, believe and act upon the idea (false tho it is) that our pot is who (at the most fundamental level) we are.

 We are spirit...an energy that is simultaneously inside of us and outside of us.  It is us and also greater than us.  This is a paradox greater than thought than encompass.  You cannot be defined.  Well, the pot mind does not like this at all and will if at all possible reject this idea. (mostly because it spells the end of the  ego dominated mind ) By ego I mean Eckhardt's definition of ego..."the mind based substitute for your divine self".  Try now to imagine...thinking of who you are and saying..".I cannot be defined".." I am not this or that"..... I just "am".

Either you felt a little awkward saying this or you had just a flash of a sudden no space or time...of the "is ness" of this moment.  You are like God, you exist outside of time.  Your pot however exists in time, it had a beginning and will have an end.  And even though you so love your specialness or the specialness of those who are special to you...the parts that are of the pot's make-up, the time space personality, those also will end with the pot.  Even at the graveside, "From dust we came and to dust we return" is not really accurate.  Our pot came from dust and our pot returns to dust just as everything that has a form in this time space reality will do...all of it.  It will pass....in 10 years or 70 years or 250 years...it will pass.
You will not.

You had no beginning and have no end.  You are actually  life itself.  You are such a apart of life that you and Life are one...you and Love are one....You and God are one....You and Atman are one....You and the Self are one....

It is however, common to hear people say that they can tell a difference between where they are inside and where the divine is and that there is a difference.  What they are actually saying is that their perception of themselves is different from the divine.  They go  in their being to a mind construct of their pot and identify that as who they are.(usually out of habit)  And is usually held in place with rather intense emotions. It isn't who they are. They will know this to be so eventually, we all will, now or when the  pot dies....  You will experience the oneness with all this is.  Only the ego's mind is fearful of being all one.  Because it fears if it loses its separateness, it will lose its specialness. It wants its independence  so it can be special.   But the opposite is true, when you let go of your specialness, you begin to feel, to experience your oneness.  That is when you begin to accept the truth of who you are.


You are never in conflict. 
You are invulnerable.  
You are full of ....overflowing..... in Love..so much so that ....you are Love.  
When you love, there is never any sacrifice because you cannot lose who you are. 
When you share..... give...... you increase.  You (the Divine in your pot) are connecting with the divine in the other and expansion occurs. (The Kingdom of Heaven is among...between you)


 You are never afraid.
There is no separateness. When you connect, you are  actually are experiencing yourself!  When you feel whole, you are experiencing who you are.

Of course, when the ego hears these things it dismiss them as too etheral or  it wants them for itself, it imitates them....Its idea is to  suck itself up, puff out its chest and push forward and push thru.... ......alas...  it cannot achieve its goal.. In spirit means and goal are the same.  The ego is using the body to do  it because it makes it feel "more"  perhaps even more spiritual.  The way to truth is to drop down, ...let the thrashing arms down, forgive, open up...heart and soul..the entire self and be still.  The ego never can do this successfully because it has too much fear that at some point it will "lose itself" or be hurt or die.  So we kindly, set it aside and do this without its participation.

We begin to come home and hear ourselves resonating back to us.  We  make and remake  mind constructs allowing ourselves to come closer and closer (in our perception) to the divine.....If we continue, if we really want to know....we will begin to discover our own true nature  and come to peace with who we are.

There is A Dream we call the world and it has constructed everything on the ego's mind based realities.We live in that reality.  Imagine you were transported to another planet and given a suit that when you put it on you looked liked the species of this planet.  You would in time want to communicate with them, to trade, to survive and then to thrive there.  You would adapt and would adopt  it all.  That doesn't change who you are....even if you forgot who you are.  Even if they came with you and have forgotten who they are. That still doesn't change who you are(or who they are for that matter).

Everything about the pot (all pots individually and collectively) changes over time.  They must.  They can be beautiful to look at, appropriate or not...they can achieve and diminish.  However, they can never diminish who they really are or who you really are. Dressing our pots, trimming them down, learning new skills, mastering new achievements......making them look as we perceive we want them to look can be fun and engaging.  Giving the characteristics that were made into your pot an opportunity to be released in this time space reality is very rewarding.  In fact, I can admire your pot and you can admire mine!

But still...the great quest of this time space reality is not to make the best pots we can.  It is to wake up from the dream that pots and all forms are all there is.  It is to continue to evolve and chose to visit a higher level of consciousness. A place where "we know that we know"....where peace dwells and love resides.  Where joy beyond measure and circumstance awaits.  Where the pot is continually filled. Where the pot is energized and fullfilled in ways it never can be listening only to itself.

As our ego's mind is still.... we realize...most often without any words at all...we realize we have "Come Home"....... that we belong here because it is who we are.


Breathe........Smile.....

Breathe.....

breathe again.....and think on these things


selah