Freedom From Ourselves

We all want to know how to be the best version of ourselves.  We want the world outside of us, the world that "happens to us" to be nothing but wonderful.  We all want to be loved.  We all want to be appreciated.  We all want to be a success.  We all want answers.   Essentially, what we are all seeking, to various degrees, is a sense of self that makes us feel complete and subsequently "free."  This desire to be "free," to feel as if we are moving towards settling all the inner and outer desires of our life, is what, we believe, pushes us to become who we desire to be.  But how are we to be "free" if we are always pursuing something?  How are we to be free if we always desire something?  It is only human to desire, right?  It is only human to keep pursuing, right?  Let's look into this...

Our anxieties, our self-incrimination, our self doubt, our feeling of lack all derive from something so simple...

Through the conditioning of our culture we push and push and push to reach some sort of inner and outer achievement, acquisition, or status too where we feel fulfilled.  Our freedom than becomes dependent upon our accomplishments or some specific status we desire to achieve.  We say to ourselves... "I will be a good man, unburdened, when I do such in such"..."I will be a great woman when I find the way to calm my heart."  Freedom, in this state, is contingent upon the success of the goal we seek to accomplish.  Seemingly, we are "more free" from the burden of ourselves, of the inner self that judges, when we can cross off our personal checklist that too which we desire to do, have, or become.  But let us examine the logic in all of this.  If we are trying to work backwards, attempting to negate the desire born from within by accomplishing something...from where do we start?  The answer is that we have been conditioned to believe that we will always have something to which we seek to achieve in order to achieve some "better" status of who we are.  Subsequently, we always feel as if we have something missing in our lives...we will than always feel as if there is some gap between who we are now and who we believe we are to become.

Please be aware...If we are conditioned to find freedom in doing, having, and or becoming...how are we ever to be free?  This game of always having to do, be, or accomplish something is never ending, is it not?  You say you will be free when you attain such and such amount of money in your bank account, you say you will be free when you run off too your piece of land, you say you will be when you find love etc., but the mind that is always chasing freedom in pursuits and accomplishments is simply that...chasing...and is a mind that is always chasing peaceful and at ease? 

{As a side note, can we see how the entire consumer society is based upon this conditioned principle?  Are we not feed, in a conscious sense, a seemingly infinite amount of advertisement that tells us what to desire, tells us how to behave, tells us how to love, how to eat, how to have fun etc.?  We are taught to seek freedom in our indulgences, but how free are we if we are tethered to gratifying something that is in a perpetual state of desire, that something being the conditioned ego?

Where did this sense of indulgence that we feel even come from?  Is this something innately human or is it something that is conditioned into us?  I will leave you to answer that, but question this...would money exist in a "free" society, would "better" and "worse" exist in a free society, would "rich" or "poor" exist in a free society...would war exist in a free society?  Only when we become aware of this conditioning process can we begin to move forward as a society and as individuals.  Well, what is "moving forward" anyway...well, I will leave that for your heart to discover...I digress...}

The individual that does not look into ones own mind to witness the conditioning, is always going to be tethered to some idea or too some notion of having to do something.  The idea we have about ourselves is conditioned into us.  Of course we all display unique temperament, but to what degree is the "John" that we have come know a product of social conditioning?  Are you not more than the "mental box" to which the conditioning keeps you in?

This clinging onto a projected image protects us from actually being with the "what is."  The image propels us into the fantasy world and the world of the ego.  The ego, the idea of oneself or what that idea of oneself is "soon too become," is an illusory energy formation.  When we concentrate on the ego and live from this place we believe we are warding ourselves from misery, loneliness and the like, becuase we believe we are giving our lives some sort of direction, some sort of identity which to follow.  Yes we are giving our lives "direction," but are we even aware of where this "direction" leads us, energetically speaking?

Again, are you aware of the conditioning?  If we are directing ourselves constantly to be attaining more, seeking to become more, seeking to have more of anything, whether it be love, money, sex, or social recognition, etc.,...are we not declaring to ourselves and to the universe that we have a void to fill?

In actuality, the ego, which we believe is guiding us to freedom is actually doing the reverse to us.  It is keeping us tethered to wanting, to desiring, and the like.  The ego wants more of itself...it wants more "me" and will seek this through attempting to satiate its desires.   These ideas of how we should be, what we should do, what we should attain etc., are nothing more than "mind stuff" which projects us into the future and away from the now.  How can there be any freedom when we believe salvation exists in attaining something that is bound to the future?

The ego and the isolation it presupposes is the illusion that leads us to believe and see as fact that we are "islands" amongst each other.  Yes, we are individuals, but we are more than that.  We are both individuals and a collective human race simultaneously [as well as collective living ecosystem which extends to the cosmos and beyond].  Yet, the consumer society and those who benefit most off of it, have a vested interest in keeping the illusion of individualism alive.  Our true nature is that we, as individuals, inhabit an ecosystem, an Earth, that is inherently interconnected.  Each part, whether that part be a single human individual, an ocean, or a chimpanzee in Africa are tied in some way or another.  We do not need science to prove this to ourselves.  The feeling inside knows this truth.  Yet, if we have been cut off from this feeling within through mass conditioning, of which has influenced us to live primarily from the mind and not from sensation, we get lost in the endless abyss of the mind and thus lose sense of this feeling within.

As for the sake of humans, there would be no society without the individual, yet there would be no individual without the society...When we cling onto the ego for individual identification we become unaware of the great connection we all have.  It is this connection, when lost, that we leads us to feel an overwhelming sense of isolation and subsequent fear.  The "I" must compete against each other to secure what the "I" needs.  The elite in control of media [who live solely from fear] have us believing we are "one nation under all" yet, when nations are pinned against one another it becomes, in theory, a global race to the bottom for resource acquisition.

The thing is, if we as countries are competing against one another we are inherently competing against each other as individuals even in our own countries.  The profit motive, the motive which is conditioned into us, is what leads us to believe that war is a "normal" way of life.  We egotistically wave around our nationalistic flags while we have been conditioned to become desensitized to the brutality that all this has all caused.  [And as a side note, do you really think that you were not conditioned to believe that "terrorism" is some real threat to our sovereignty as a nation?  Has the media not attempted to condition us through their relentless campaigns to fear dark skinned bearded men living in caves half way around the world? - seek to see how the media and those who control it have tried relentlessly to keep the ego illusion alive and you in fear].

The struggle we see in ourselves, as well as the world, exists becuase we believe we must compete against another, we must be compared against another.  It is the comparison and judgment of another that leads us to act to fulfill the conditioned desires of the ego.  It is the comparison and judgment of another that leads to us believe that we are indeed actually separate and not inherently connected.

All of our insecurities arise from this separation and we try incessantly to be, do, or accomplish something in order to override this insecurity.  We try to become better than that person, we try to become more cunning, smarter, richer, etc., than the next person.  We try to be "freer" than the next person.  Therefore, if the mind only knows and acts from this separation, from this conditioned sense of self, how can we ever as both individuals and as a collective society ever be free?

What is freedom anyway?  If there is always a desire to become something, to accomplish something, to figure something out etc., is there freedom?  If we are in a perpetual state of trying to uphold the image to which we believe we are can we free?  Are we not limited to the image?, the image being the conditioning of ones life...How are we free if this conditioning attempts to project one forward in their life in a way that keeps our minds in the tomorrows of what we are going to become.  Does this image than, this conditioning than, put borders around oneself, whether those borders be ideological, and such?  If there are borders than around oneself...can you really be free?  Go deeply into that...not with your mind...but with all of you.

Is freedom than the cessation of "having" to do something, "having" to be something, "having" to feel something?

What is it than to be free of desire?  If there is nothing left to be, do or accomplish, we may state that we are no longer human, we are not living...But go within here, and feel this...can the mind really understand what it is to be free?  What is "free" anyway?  Of course the mind can analyze, interpret, and make rational and logical deductions as too what this experience can be like...but how can any attempt to know something of which is beyond mind be understood by mind?

So where do we go from here?

Simply be aware...and see what you discover.  Witness the conditioning mind and how it is simply an accumulation of the past.  Let go of this by allowing yourself to be who you are in this moment without any judgment.  You do this not by trying anything, not by applying any formula, not by seeking any guru or the like...you do it by simply becoming aware.  When you become aware of the process the awareness burns through the unconciousness like a light into the darkness.  When a tought comes up, just be aware of it.  Witness to see if you judge anything, yet do not seek to change this, just be aware.  This takes a diligent mind, a focused mind...but that is what it is to be fully awoken.  Just be you...your awareness is inherently patient.

Know that you needed to become conditioned to know what it is to live beyond your condition so that you may know, on a deep and profound level, how expansive the human experience can be...so you could know what freedom really is.  This is all a part of our soul's journey...mine as well.  You may not find words, ideas, notions, and the like as too what this experience brings to you.  You may not find the "holy grail," you may not find just what you were looking for...but you just might find the feeling that tells you everything!

The Conversation

The conversation is never ending. There is no start or beginning to this conversation. You can either participate in this conversation or you can ignore it, but whether we are conscious of it or not...the conversation preservers. We often tend to think that "conversations" only exist between humans, but the world is constantly "communicating" with us. Yet we are conditioned to observe life within a scope that is limiting, for we "believe" that the universe must be logical, and must act within its biological limitations.

But believe not what you believe and instead step into the awareness of knowing that what you observe is greater than what you think your observing...

Step into the awareness of knowing that what you sense transcends what you are actually thinking...for what we experience, observe, and sense is tied to something that is inextricably conscious, alive, and available for two way communication. The thing though about this conversation is that it is not something that "happens to you," it is something you consciously participate in (whether we are aware of it or not). When we drop the distraction of the ego, we can begin to witness that "thing" which transcends you...The "thing" being the feeling of self during the "act of awareness." - this is when allow feeling and soul to lead us instead of letting the mind lead us.

What conversation am I even talking about? Well I am speaking about the infinitely unfolding conversation that is going on between you (the internal world) and the universe (the external world). You may ask, "how does something that has no ability to talk have the ability to communicate." Well, this is a thought that directly reflects the way in which we have been conditioned to observe how communication can happen. You may ask "how is something that is not alive communicate." Aliveness is also another relative term based on how we have been conditioned. Aliveness, as we believe it to be, is a term used to describe an entity of existence that is biologically alive. Yet, universally speaking, everything is alive because everything is conscious. Everything is conscious because it is inextricably tied to the ALL. And the ALL, the realm of the all encompassing expansion of infinite consciousness, is not divided. The only thing that divides anything, conceptually speaking, in our reality is thought (read the meta-physics of consciousness to better understand this). So essentially if everything is related; that is, if everything is is inherently relating to everything, how then is everything not in communication? It is through this communication that consciousness comes to witness itself and understand itself in the varying degrees and dimensions to which consciousness reveals itself to itself. It is hard to describe this, but consciousness builds itself, expands itself, through becoming aware of itself. And through this communication, we as individual human units of consciousness evolve for we are brought into a heightened state. We evolve because we are doing the only thing we ever came here to do...and that was to witness ourselves...and the more conscious we become of consciousness it self, of the conversation, of the world, of everything...the more conscious we become of our nature, for we realize that we ARE nature.

Verbal exchange is not the only way to communicate. In actuality it is a very limiting way of communication because words can not touch the actual experience of the word being spoke about. A word, a thought, a concept, which are the means of verbal communication are abstractions. They are not the actual "thing." The actual thing is the experience. The experience being the feeling evoked from whatever it is that the observer comes into relation with. True communication, in its most elemental and pure form, stems from feeling. And words, thoughts, and concepts are often used in attempt to convey these feelings, but do not get tied up and lost in the fact that these words are not the actual thing. Communication essentially takes place in the realm of feelings. And if we become conscious of how the exterior world evokes feelings within us we can begin to realize that we can have a two way conversation with the exterior reality. I will explain what I mean by this in detailed examples below*. So now that we are clear that communication extends way beyond words can we begin to "taste," experientially, how everything around us is communicating with us. We are in relation to everything. The interior world can only come to know itself through the witnessing of our relation to the outside world. This is the foundation of communication. Communication exists in the meeting spot between the internal world and the external world because this is where feeling is created...

The feelings we feel occur because of our experience with the exterior. We are always communicating with the exterior. Do not doubt the ability for us to foster feelings from within that communicate with the exterior world. Do not doubt then to have these feelings reciprocated by the exterior world. There is nothing "random," going on here. Everything we witness in our conventional society is the outcome of our communication with the outside world. Yet, many of our actions, many of our creations never take into account the well-being of the inhabitants and the earth itself. Because of this we are beginning to witness the effects of this in how the Earth and its inhabitants are communicating with us. It is not random that there has been an increase in tectonic activity, an increase in socio-political upheaval and the like. We are now witnessing the Earth communicate back against our own ignorance by the Earth cleansing itself of the entities that are ignorant to its means of communication. Would you continue talking to someone who was not listening to you? Or would you walk away?

The Earth right now is walking away...but we still have the opportunity to walk away with it...and we shall for that is our destiny. But where are we walking? Is walking then, metaphorically speaking, the same as evolving? Here the Earth has realized that the general mass that occupies it is a sleep at the wheel and is veering off course. Our ignorance perpetuates a divided world that hoards and destroys the vital life force to which not only humans depend, not only animals and plants depend on, but the Earth itself depends on. And so the Earth is choosing to evolve by transcending its dense 3 dimension vibration (a vibration that enables duality to exits - and everything that has ensued through egoic ignorance) into a 4th and subsequent 5th dimensional being where it can restore its vitality and move closer into the oneness (away from duality). This is a shift of metaphysical proportions and is occurring, not coincidentally with the shift that the Mayans were keen on. Regardless of our ignorance thought, we are always "walking back to source"...the walking process is always happening, always occurring...our conscious awareness of this "walking journey" though, dictates how "fast" we walk...how "fast" we evolve into the body of divine source. So it is our conscious awareness that can shape our choices...the choices that shape the momentum and direction of our evolution. Remember, not choosing is a choice. And it is the not-choice choice that has perpetuated a mass mind that is a sleep at the wheel, distracted and dissociated through its own egoic distractions.

It just occurred to me I don't feel emotionally well during full moons...This is my time to exponentially experience the culmination of this cycles' emotional energy buildup (cycle meaning time in between full moon cycles). Yet, it is quite intense this time around...and increasing so...I think it is because I sense the lack of communication between humans and the earth (yet it is a disconnect that was inevitable. The disconnect will bring us to the realization of connection - but when will we choose to understand this and connect?). Most of us are immune to this, or we "choose" to be immune to it (for we are distracted and dissociated from the conversation going on with reality due to how perversely we live from mind instead of soul). Again, through this non-choice choice we are unconsciously creating, or perpetuating, a reality that condones inequality, competition instead of cooperation, destruction, war, brutality, and an overall disconnection with spirit.

Spirit is there! it always is...it just much be reached for in order for us to experience soul...we must consciously strive and arrive at soul....and continue to move towards goodness in the spiritual form...Love, harmony, equality, peace and divine justice are only possible if we move into soul. If we are going to be brought back into communication with the earth we must be brought back into soul and feel everything that is occurring. When we feel this communication we are no longer dissociated from "the conversation" with life...with the universe...for we are no longer caught in the trap of the mind and its abstractions.

When the ego becomes "known." When we come to the dissolution of the ego through awakening we will come to experience the restoration of our connection with spirit/with earth...When we are no longer bound to the ego, no longer tethered to the mind...we will find peace. We will be in Communion...

...The conversation is then understood...

Last night I was playing guitar in my room...Had Phish Blasting, Amp Cranked... for many Hours...Last night was also a very stormy night. The storms that ragged down south (bringing massive tornadoes and subsequent upheaval) influenced our area as well...I had a clear view of the night sky through two large windows. A lighting storm was brewing...

At some point in the night I was totally lost in the music...I was not thinking about anything...I was just playing through feeling...and magically my fingers kept moving...The room around me was alive and breathing and so was everything...During the peak of a phish jam...both trey and I were raging and as this happened...in my immersion into feeling (completely) the night sky flashed purple with the evenings first observable bolt of lighting...The tension built and then released in sync with the movements of the world. I was realizing through music how much the earth responded to me. I am alive and I feel without thought when I play guitar. That communion felt ecstatic...Beyond being "proof" it was a celebration...As it always should be.

(post photo from: Ashley Coll, Fine Artist. http://www.ashleycoll.com/index.html)

We Are All Psychic to "Our Path"; How to Clear Psychic Room For Intuition

Essentially we are all psychic. Psychic ability lies in the sensitivity to our own inner calling. When we are in touch with the inner self we can, to a greater degree, bring clarity in our own life and make "better" decisions. It is all about how we witness ourselves. Inner awareness (which is psychic awareness) brings us outer awareness. It is this sensitivity to our inner awareness that helps us too empathize with other people, places, and events. I like to use the word "calling" instead of feeling, because often times our psychic awareness comes to us in an almost emotionless feeling. The calling is a glimpse, not something necessarily something that is associated with the gauntlet of human emotions (that is unless we pick up an others expression of human emotion - for example, when we sense another person's sadness). There are many types of psychic phenomena, but in this post I will focus on sensing the calling within us that helps us figure out our way in life.

We all have the ability to sense "our path" (our path is the route we take in life via our decisions). Our "path" is never set in stone. Our "path" changes based on the choices we make in the now, yet, our "path" always brings us into the same place (into the Oneness). And when we are sensitive to this inner calling we move in-line, to a greater degree, a more aware degree, with our soul mission. We then accelerate our spiritual evolution process (working through karma, finding our way to unity and love, and creating life based principles of acceptance and love). For we are always living out our souls journey, but it is in making sound choices, of which we discern through our inner callings, that dictates how "fast" we find our way back to source.

If we question and doubt what we sense (and we often do this unconsciously), our intuitive ability to be sensitive to the moment diminishes for we get caught up in the mind. Yes of course the mind is used to transcribe feelings into words so that they can be illuminated into a language that we can use to make choices...but if we experience from the-place-of-mind we often miss what we are experiencing in that inner place of "visceral witnessing." The inner calling can get tuned out due to our over emphasis on executing the cerebral aspect of our being (our inner calling can get tuned out to the thinking process).

I like to use the term "visceral witnessing" here because it tries to describe the fact that we can witness our experiences through our feelings first (as opposed to witnessing our experience through our minds first). Essentially it is our choice as to how we filter our experience. We can filter our experience through the veil of illusory thought, of which is always tied to what we learned, always tied to the past, and always already known, or we can filter our experience through sensing it. When we sense first, images and a conceptual understanding of it subsequently make its way to the mind (this is the natural process of things). The mind can transcribe, yet it does not need to analyze. There is so much of life that slips our perception because we are constantly analyzing. Yet the deeper we go into witnessing what we sense, not analyzing what we sense, the deeper we go into soul...and the more we bring out our "higher self." Trust how the mind transcribes this. You do not need to analyze further.

When we stand in awe of something...we are viscerally witnessing it...simply present with the experience. We are not witnessing the known, we are witnessing the NOW. The experience of being in awe does not need to be set aside just for our profound experiences, but every moment can be made profound...that is if we stop expecting to see what we see. The mind, with its accumulations of past experiences, does not always have to decide for us what it is we are going to witness. We can witness everything anew.

The mind is the ego, and if we are coming from a place of ego to witness our surroundings the sensitivity we could have to "outer phenomena" becomes diminished for we are living cerebrally more so than viscerally and our energy is focused inward in the mind. We need to be "out of our minds" to be sensitive...to feel ourselves and another with clarity...and we need to be out of our minds to psychically sense our own existence so that we can make the best decisions moving forward. Not out of our minds like "crazy," but literally not having our energy focused in the mind.

The mind should be used to transcribe the creations that beget from the soul. When we use the mind to create, our creations often come forth from the past instead of the now. For the mind only knows the yesterdays...but it is the heart, it is the soul that knows the NOW...and it is the heart that can direct you into the moment of now and into the feeling of the "future" moments of now. The future is only an extension of the now. For we can sense the path ahead of us...We know were we are going...There is no reason to question what we sense.

If we live from a sensitivity within us we are listening to the soul within us and we subsequently are made more awake to the path we are living. For we walk "the path" to evolve...and it is the soul that is evolving, not the mind. For the mind evolves as the soul evolves and not visa-versa. For we are soul, we are heart...and the mind, aside from rudimentary functioning, is just a means to understand soul.

Furthermore, if we question and doubt we give power to the fact that we don't "know" what we sense. When we doubt and question we declare to our inner world that what we are sensing is either "not real," "unknowable," or "imaginary." The collective western society, which is very mind based, has conditioned many of us, if not all of us, to believe that "answers" are sought in the mind and that we come to know something through analytic and logical deduction. Yet the thing about our intuition is that it is a calling from within that does not need logical or rational confirmation. It is simply something we know. Nothing more...

Our emphasis on logic and rationality of mind illuminates the fact that we live our lives through the mind more so than through feeling. In our patriarchal, ego driven society, there is a not a balance between the feminine and masculine energies that are inherent to all of life. For our masculine energy is mind centered and our feminine energy is feeling based. And because we are so accustomed to putting a greater emphasis on the masculine aspect of our existence (for this is how societal institutions, both economical and religious, have conditioned our way of being) we lose sight of the clarity and vision we gain from living through "visceral witnessing." The balance between the feminine and masculine energies become manifest when we honor our inner callings first. For our soul knows that harmony with ourselves, with others, and with nature is what creation is moving towards. A transformation from within is what creates exterior change and subsequent unity. All and all we would still think, but we would live from feeling, not from thought.

Even those who are not "religious" or those who are not into adhering to social conventions still find themselves functioning in a society that is mind based. Therefore, we put a greater emphasis on developing the skills of mind. This is apparent in our school system from the elementary level through higher academia. I question: When were we taught as children in public schools what it is to "feel?" Where we ever taught how to learn about how intuition works and what it is too simply "know?" Where we taught what it is to be in-tune with the energies of another? And as we grow older into adulthood are we not taught to suppress our imagination and be "more practical?"

Our conditioned filter disables us from really honoring our psychic abilities. For when the mind dictates our perception: when our mind tells us what to see or what another is, or expects what to feel, we are taken away from the moment of now. And only when we are here now, sensing the now, not thinking the now, does the conditioned filter seem to diminish. Because I am not saying that the mind is something we shouldn't use, but the mind should not be what we use to discern things...for the heart, our sensitivity, has a greater capacity to discern...for the mind is essentially trying to discern our perception, why not let our perception discern our perception? Why not let the energy we feel be what we know instead of trying to think about what we know?

How many times have you let the mind discern for you? Was the mind trying to analyze a way to figure out how the decision to be made was to ward you from lack, loss, or take you away from what you perceive to be negative? Does the mind, as it is conditioned, tend to function to ward off what we do not want? Do we then not project out into the universe that we are living from a place of fear? Because even if we declare that there are things we do not want, we get the experience of being around an energy that we do not want (that is the energy that the mind creates when we live in fear). Our experience is a direct relationship to how we think life, sense life, or be life...this is the nature of creation.

Being psychic means we know simply because we know. We do not think it into knowing...we just know "it." I know all of us can recall time when we knew how another was going to feel about a certain situation, or you got the hunch that so and so was going to call you and they did. Or the feeling that you had to partake in a particular activity. Or I bet you have had the feeling that someone from across the room was looking at you and so you "automatically" look at them. This simply is being sensitive to the what is. And although these are basic psychic feelings, for psychic ability can get very "intense," they nonetheless exemplify the fact that we just "know" things. And the more we trust this inner knowing the more it grows (because being psychic to oneself, to another, or to the future is like building a muscle, it grows through repeated use). For the more we trust our perception of things the more sensitive we become to what we are witnessing. And the more sensitive we become to the "what is," the greater the clarity we have too discerning our life path.

We are always "on path," it is just to what extent are we conscious of our visceral witnessing and to what extent are we accelerating the spiritual evolution process...

"Psychicness" does not necessarily mean that we can predict someone's future. Being psychic means we "know" what is now. It means we can sense the subtle energies that permeate all of existence. A person with a very strong psychic sense can tell you about your past, for the past as an energy formation still resides within us today. People can also tell us about the future, but only the future that is being created is right now. No prediction is absolute truth, for you have the ability to change your "destiny" with each choice you make. So the future is yours...but can you sense where you want to go? I would suggest listening to your heart instead of directing your life with the mind and the ego...Life may be more mysterious, but it certainly will be more awe-inspiring, alive, and wondrous...

As a side note: It is also very important that if we are to become sensitive to the sensations within our body and mind that we are to have a clean vessel. It is important to minimize consumption of toxins, whether they be from our food, water, drugs, or mental toxins such as psychic energy that numbs the senses (most television programming, most internet programming, etc.,: because we are bombarded on a daily basis with stimulus that dulls the senses). Seek out activities and experiences that make you feel alive!

Do not yearn or search for results, for the yearning and searching will only give the result of - the feeling of more yearning and searching. Just be confident...just know...but I suggest you find some silence and just be. If you are not accustomed to the feelings that silence and stillness bring you, FORGIVE yourself...for we all have, for decades been bombarded with stimulus that dull our senses and distract us from going within. Be patient...be silent...and turn the focus inward on the body. You may be surprised to how much you are feeling...and how much feeling has been stored up in you. Use breathe work to let go of the excess psychic storage, tension and the like. Just be with your breathe. If your frustrated, simply acknowledge it. Move on if you life or continue...There is no pressure, there is no where to go, and there is nothing to attain...because you are already there. When you realize you already knew this...then you will know what I am talking about...

Simple breathing exercise: Sit still in a chair or on the floor in any way that you feel comfortable. Put your hands on your lap. Leave your eyes closed or open (there are no rules). Have your feet on the ground if your sitting in a chair. And simply breathe. On your in-breath simply sense the air moving in the noise and into the lungs. On the out-breath feel the air move out of the body. This will give you a greater body awareness. Sense more deeply what it is that the body feels and let it go...by breathing in and out (slowly and more deeply). The breathe eases the tension like the hands knead the doe and soften it.

If you cannot stay still in your mind simply count to one on the in breathe and one on the out-breath, then two on the subsequent in breath and out-breath until you reach ten...then go in reverse.

1...1...2...2...3...3........3...3...2...2...1...1

Another useful tool could be to: on the in breath and out breath repeat:

In...Out
In...Out

Deep...Slow
Deep...Slow

Present Moment...Only Moment
Present Moment...Only Moment

Break the cycle, change the cycle, create your own...go into silent breath...There are no rules. Chant and sing aloud if you want. Again, no rules.

Meditation does not need to be an exercise...Do what ever it is that puts you at ease. For this is your subjective experience...

REMEMBER there is no goal! So then why do this...why come in touch with the calling in the soul? Well, I will leave that for you to decide. It just might be that the answer does not come in thought ;)

Letting Go and Becoming

I think that when you let go of all the things you thought you had to be you become who you really are. You become the embodiment of your essence, for you are no longer thinking about your existence...you are your existence. What comes of this state? Who are you in this state? And what actually is this state? For we build concepts and ideas as to what we are...but are we really anything but awareness? We latch onto ego concepts in hopes that we will become these things or that we will hold onto what we are. The thing about life is that it is always flowing, always changing. Life is like the River and so are you. The only difference between the river and you is that you are aware of the river, you can look at the river, you can be with the river. We are always in relationship to everything and anything. It is our awareness that enables us to experience these inherent relationships. So I question, If we are in relaitonship with everything and essentially we are only awareness...than can there be any separation between you and I, between you and the things we label "things." (i.e, tree, molecule, rock, etc)?

It seems to me that the ego and its thought patterns are the things that drive us into inner conflict. For if we feel we are not something that we should be we drive ourselves into disharmony. Or maybe we honor something about ourselves so much, a thing definable through subjective thought, that it detaches us from our own awareness and leaves us dwelling in the mind. How can we be truly aware of relationship, which is what enables us to understand ourselves to begin with, if we are stuck within the illusions of our own ego identifications (both "positive" or "negative")?

Built within the social fabric of our society there are "ideals" we are sought to attain. We believe we must attain a certain amount of savings, or that we are to live in a particular neighborhood, or that we are to drive a certain type of car, or that we are to only associate with certain types of people, because those are the people they "get it","get me", "that are like me" etc...These are the illusions that divide us, bring our awareness inward into the mind when it could instead be on the beautiful and wondrous relationship that is the "all." These are the things that trouble us for we do not meet our expectations or the expectations of another (for how can we truly become the thoughts that we identify with?).

We are more than this, for in awareness we sense our true nature. In awareness we sense the awe of our experience, we sense the pulsating vibrations of all that is around us. For in awareness we sense that everything around us effects us and in that we know that all is One. For anything else is an illusion of the mind. So we then may ask...how are we to be aware...how are we to sense the One? Well for one, stop trying, and secondly stop trying, and thirdly stop trying...For you have nothing to attain, no where to go, nothing to do, but be right here now...that is to be who you are. Because you are me and I am you. Because you are the sun and I am the birds...Don't you see, yes we inhabit "physical" bodies that set the illusion of separations, but do you not see how connected we are at the heart felt level...for the heart is something we have become confused about...but be confused no more, for the heart is your answer, this is you, this is your awareness. Human emotion is our greatest gift. For even love, which is the foundation to the all, is gut wrenching, it is blissful, it is painful, and it is awesome! It is all these things and more. Words cannot describe this experience, they may touch upon it, give it direction, but they cannot describe what it is. For the mind thinks and the heart experiences. So honor your awareness, be here now, and then you may see that all these things that you thought about yourself dissolve and become nothing but the uttering of your mind. You may just realize how connected you are, how alive you are, how beautiful you and the everything is...Do we want anymore than this....

Yes the society confines us to a certain type of existence, but I tell you right now...If we want transformation we must first start from within...for our energy that transforms from the inside makes its way to all the others on the outside (read the metaphysics of duality to better understand this concept *which will come out later tonight)...The current society society is the amalgam of our own energy now and our disobedience to the norm.

So beyond the mental illusion are we free? Yes. Are we Love, Yes...For is there anything more once you get past the illusions of the mind?

Peering Beyond the Shadow

The shadow of fear casts its influence upon us in ways that have shaped how we create our lives and subsequently our society. The light of love creaks in, but only to the degree to which we allow ourselves to bask in the glory of our interconnection with each other, with the Earth, and with Source. Fear is the shadow which keeps us within thought paradigms that led us to conform our intentions to patterns of existence that are already prescribed for us.

When we stay in the shadows we keep walking in circles. Lost without light to guide us...

Fear keeps us hiding behind the authority that decides for us how we shall live. Love is the feeling, as opposed to thought, that pushes us out of the darkness and into the conscious awareness to where we make our own decisions out of untainted feeling. When we live from thought we live in a repetitive unconscious way, when we live from sensing and feeling we live from love. The feeling of love, as subtle as it may be at times, brings us into awareness of the energy all around us.

Feeling brings us higher truth, conformist thought brings us already known truth. Yet can feeling bring us a new organic thought paradigm?

While we are sensing and feeling at the purest level, thought paradigms do not filter our experience, and we access the feelings we feel from the heart center. From this place the heart casts its energy outward grappling the energy all around. The feelings of another and the feelings of the world and beyond can be perceived. To me, this is what brings us higher truth for it enables us to sense the community, the Earth, and the ALL. Everything else is simply an abstraction of the "what is."

I state that fear is a shadow because it is the shadow which represents the darkness, the vision-less, and the ignorance, that becomes a part of our experience. There is nothing inherently evil about the darkness, nor is there anything "wrong" with ignorance, yet these are aspects of our existence that need to be observed and transformed into something we become conscious of (that is if we want to grow and evolve). For if we are to grow we need to become conscious of what we are not conscious of. Yet, bless the darkness (the duality) for it has granted us the opportunity to know what it is to experientially grow. And this brings me to the question: What is it really to evolve and grow?

To evolve is to be awoken...to raise your awareness...and nothing more...for awareness can always evolve...

When we shed the light of the awakened spirit amongst the shadows of our existence we move closer into the light of love, for we come to know experientially what we are: we feel in our hearts that we are the light of creation itself (try to feel this as opposed to think it). Because when we are "awake" we feel without thought filtering the experience and in this experience we can come to the awesome realization that you "are." When we hold light and love in our hearts we are creating by simply being around darkness and illuminating it through our being. Even as we walk down the street in pure awareness, light, and love, those who walk near you will feel your energy and their energy may be altered just by walking past you.

We accelerate our evolution process when we realize to greater degrees that this experiential feeling of being awake is the basis of evolved creation. This realization has the power to influence how we are to live for it influences our choices in profound ways. I mention "to greater degrees" because we are always evolving and growing, the process never stops.

God too is always evolving... and God is always evolving towards the light of awoken consciousness for God seeks to create love and harmony...are we than not aspects of God? We evolve consciously as we realize that we are God creating God within the realm of conscious manifestation. This is the evolution of consciousness...But what is it that keeps us from creating a world of harmony?

I am going to make a bold statement here...that the overwhelming majority of people, if not everyone, down to their cores wants world peace (and world peace is not just the end of wars, but it is the end of the socio-economic hierarchy and the end of ethnic and cultural segregation). We may not think about this daily, nor may we live lives that actively pursue this goal, yet deep down I believe we all want this. But because we have no idea how to even envision this we claim it is impossible for this to be...and of course, world peace could never be if the majority of people could not envision it. Remember from the last article (the meta-physics of consciousness), that thought is pre-manifested reality. Thought is creative in nature and if the majority of us hold the notion that world peace is impossible to attain and will never happen we, as a world society, will never see world peace. The universe is a "copy" machine that broadcasts to our reality exactly what it is that we believe, think, know, and feel. The universe is our canvas of creation, and how we experience so shall the portrait be displayed.

We believe that there will never be peace in the "middle-east," or peace between the "Israel" and "Palestine," or peace between "blacks" and "whites" (I put quotations to exemplify how these cultural categories are simply devised by thought). We believe that our nations separate us, we believe that skin color separates us, and we believe that differences in our belief structures divide us. Now, the division in all these cases occurs because of our thoughts about them. Is a nation not a piece of Earth that is divisible only by some imaginary border line? All the while a culture develops within these boarder lines that makes us believe we are different, and yes culturally, in many ways we are, but are we not all connected at the heart level? Do we not all feel the loves and pains of the human experience? Are racial differences nothing more than differences in physical traits (of which occurred through peoples adaptation to certain ecosystems)? How are we to attribute real, soulful differences between these people if we are not to adhere to some conforming thought paradigm that states that these people are a certain thing, and act in a certain way? Do we not ourselves take on the socially prescribed notions of how we are to racially and ethnically be as if this is our imminent inheritance? I ask, are our actions prescribed to us? Are we not unconscious to a varying degree in this sense? Are we not hiding behind the shadow of fear, too timid to show our true colors of unity and love with all those who appear to be different?

Do beliefs that are dogmatic and rigid separate people? I would say so, for so often we execute our lives through thought as opposed to pure feeling. Remember, we are soul's inhabiting bodies...we are more than what we physically are, we are what we feel we are... It goes without much questioning, but we feel, for example, that because you are a Hindu and I am a christian we will never understand each other, we are different and all that superficiality (did anyone react to the fact that Hindu is capitalized and not christian...if so realize the automatic unconscious reaction that occurs.

Seek how we may do this in other parts of ours lives: remember that the shadow of fear is often out of our conscious awareness - yet seek to be aware and things which were once unconscious make there ways through into the perceiving mind.

Do we not see how we are locked into these thought paradigms. For the religious minded people, we FEAR that the only way to God is through this Dogma, for the social conformists, we FEAR that we will not feel as if we belong if we do not conform to a social paradigm that prescribes division, dependence upon a leader, and prescribes a way of being that is inherently out of touch with the movements of the Earth and the Cosmos.

If we are living from the mind we are out of touch with pure source feeling. It may be difficult to decipher whether or not the feelings we feel come from the mind or if they come from source. But if there is a hint of confusion, a hint of ego, or a hint of segregation, than you know it comes from the mind. The mind can be used to understand feelings, yet do not try too hard to fit these feelings into already existing thought paradigms. Let your feelings create a new perspective. The thoughts will follow. Words are limited, but perspective is ever expanding. Be patient with this new understanding. But be brave enough to step into the unknown of your own experience and seek to understand the world, relationships, and yourself beyond words...You just may find that feeling...You just might tune into source...