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