Every now is unique
Staying with this ever changing moment means an ever changing approach
The Way is the constant inner revolution, the continuous adaptation to the evolving reality
Awakening doesn’t reach a perfect goal
Awakening is a process
Paying attention is key, both to the process of the inner and the outer world, until they merge into one unified reality
Experience is not needed
Experience is conclusions drawn from a perceived past
Nothing can prepare you for this moment
All you can do is let go of any opinion and arrive in the present
Most of what we as humans consider true is in fact our personal opinion.
There is no good or bad about that. It simply is. This can be observed in our own life.
Consider an object (any object). Look at it. How do you know what this object is? Most likely you will call it a name, a description that, to you, closest resemble what the object is (in your opinion).
Can you see that the terms ‘call it a name’, ‘description’ and ‘resemble’ are not the actual object?
Or as Zen Buddhism puts it: The finger that points to the moon, is not the moon.
What actually happens is: An object, according to modern science, is a collection of electromagnetic fields called atoms. In other words, what we perceive as ‘stuff’ is in reality fields of energy that reflect light.
A very small amount of this reflected light shines through our eyes. Inside the eyes the light hits some receptors. The receptors create an electrical signal which is sent to the brain. The brain sorts these electrical signals and if (and only if!) the brain can ‘make sense’ of the signal it will translate them into an imagined image and a recognition. Ahhh… I see!
From this it is fairly easy to understand that the connection between what the object really is and what we perceive it to be, is a bit like the connection between a cow eating grain… and a cheese sandwich.
So we as humans do not actually perceive the world as it is.
We only use enough of our senses to get by. For the rest… we make it up!
An example of how this has been used is in the production of film. A film is a collection of still pictures shown at such a speed that the brain stops seeing them as still pictures, but instead imagines that the objects on the screen are moving. What happens is that the brain has to make sense of the signals that it perceives. If there are gaps in the understanding, then the brain fills out the gaps using imagination so that the separate bits are seen as hanging together.
If we start looking, really looking at the details of our lives we end up with a disconcerting realisation. The world as we understand it is not ‘real’. It is continuously made up by the brain. Or as some would put it. The world is an illusion.
Realising that the world is an illusion doesn’t seem to make it go away though. In fact, the world appears to be quite persistent. But, the problem does not lie in the illusion. The problem lies in the believer of the illusion. Now who is that then? That is ‘me’ of course you silly. All right then… the problem lies with the ‘me’.
Who is ‘me’?
Me is the identification of ourselves as an individual, separate from all the other stuff and beings. And even though we believe that this ‘me’ is real, I am sorry to say that it is not. ‘Me’ only exist as an interaction between the self and other. And if the ‘other’ is an illusion, then there is no real interaction and no real ‘me’.
But, you would probably say, I am having this experience, I have to exist… and you are right (to a point). The ‘me’ which is involved in the world is part of the world. The ‘I’ which experiences the world is not of the world. So, in order to be able to say “I Am the Truth….” you have to be in the world, but not of the world. (Sounds familiar?)
So, if ‘I’ is real, or at least ‘more real’ than the me and the world, why don’t we study the ‘I’?
Bingo!!!
The persistent focus on ‘I’ which is Universal Consciousness, brings about Truth. That does not mean that the thinker (part of the me) should start making up theories about this Consciousness. It means that I can be allowed to be aware of everything and no-thing.
And as ‘I’ allows itself to be the centre from which we are aware, reality starts to unfold itself as truth … and not as opinion.
This video is from a talk I did in February 2013 in Nelson, New Zealand. You are welcome to share this and comment as well. It is my hope that this talk will inspire us all to look at what is really going on, rather than what we believe is going on.
Religions were all started by individuals who suddenly realised themselves. Their followers tried with their minds to understand and implement the techniques that their teacher used to awaken. This particular way of ‘doing it’ was then written down and has therefore survived in its various forms until present time.
Awakening is the return to ourselves. The realisation that we are consciousness itself.
This blog is meant as an open exploration into spiritual reality and the many pitfalls that appear so real and feel so powerful.
When we look at the spiritual market place today, we see a huge variety of beliefs and religions. This is quite confusing because most of these belief systems claim that there is only one true belief (normally their own). How do we as seekers avoid being taken for a ride in this overwhelming jungle of spiritual diversity?
Unfortunately/fortunately the best way to develop discrimination is to make mistakes (and realise that they were mistakes!)
The first question to ask oneself is: What is my aim? Where am I going with this seeking?
Dependent on your answer you have various options:
You could join the local church if you answer is: I believe that I am a sinner and I want God or his son to sort out my inner turmoil. I believe that Jesus came here to save me, and if I believe in him and follow the Bible, then I will go to Heaven when I die.
You could join the local mosque if you answer is: I believe that I am a sinner and I want Allah to sort out my inner turmoil. I believe that the prophet Muhammad received direct instructions from Allah which were then written down in the Koran. If I follow these guidelines I will enter Jannah (muslim paradise) when I die.
You could join the local satanists (believe me, there are some) if your answer is: F*** off! God is a nasty piece of s***. I want to rule my own destiny and hopefully others’ as well. I want to learn how to use the power of the universe for my own ends.
You could join a New Age group if your answer is: I want to be loving like the Masters. I will learn to communicate with the inner guides and together we will develop through increasing levels of light. I will learn to work with crystals and colour meditations and Oming.
You could follow a guru if your answer is: I believe in the divine through another more enlightened human. If I can find a fully awakened person, then I can give my personal will away and the guru will help me attain the enlightened state for myself.
You could join the Hara Krishnas if your answer is: Krishna consciousness is the divine state of a human being. By following the instructions in the Baghava Gita, by becoming vegetarian and abstaining from sex I will be able to shed my desire nature and learn to live in bliss and joy.
You could become a Buddhist if your answer is: The Enlightened One showed us that it is possible to gain full enlightenment in a human body. If I learn to visualize the 16 visualizations of the Shakyamuni Buddha then I can reach full enlightenment under my own steam and in this lifetime.
You could become a Hindu or a Wikkan if your answer is: All forces in nature are aspects of the divine. If I pray to these aspects and do certain rituals I will be in good standing with the gods/godesses and they will assist me on the spiritual path.
And so on …
Even if you think that all belief systems are rubbish and you only accept what is proven by science … that is still a belief system, a religion if you will.
This ‘believing in’ also covers our political view point and most of the norms of the society we live in. These views are personal and created by us. They are not absolutes or even at times logical or desirable.
If, on the other hand we look at the process of believing, then we discover that believing in … (no matter what) is our own private interpretation of reality.
If we accept the above statement, then it becomes clear that it is not possible for the person to know the truth about reality … ever!
It is however possible to experience reality and therefore truth… as long as we don’t interpret it.
In order not to interpret what we experience we have to approach our experience of reality with an open heart and an empty mind, so we can fully feel and experience ‘it’, but we abstain from having thoughts about ‘it’. Another way of putting this is that we ‘allow everything to be as it is’.
It does not mean that we have to stop thinking, but rather that we recognise that the ‘thinker’ continuously makes up beliefs, and they are just that … made up.
This is a completely different way to live and to be, but it is not a belief system because it does not involve interpretation of that which is experienced.
This approach to life does not mean that we stop being involved in life. It just means that judgement and justification falls away. It means that anything can happen (it does anyway) and we accept that this is what reality is, right now. This too will change (as it always does) so there is no need to attach meaning to the event.
A rock breaks, a flower dries out, a cat gets squashed, a person dies… has it got meaning? Does it matter how and why? It matters to our opinion/belief (made up), but it doesn’t matter to reality.
To live like this does not mean that we detach from reality and become complete space cadets. It means that we practise non-attachment so we are not desperately trying to make time slow down or speed up in order to fulfil our desire for a particular version of reality. It means that we do not waste time and energy fighting ourselves and our surroundings trying to ‘make it better’.
We have always got the option to act, or not, in any given situation.
Some people would argue that living like this would make us cold and unfeeling. But that could just be our self created sentimentalism not wanting to give up it’s stronghold as the dictator of reality.
If someone I knew died I would probably cry. If my wife kissed me I would probably laugh. These are spontaneous reactions from the emotions. I didn’t make them up, they just appeared.
But if I cried or laughed because I believed that I should, or because it would affect other people in a certain way… that is a different story.
As long as we try to manipulate reality to fit into our personal belief system, then we are living in an illusion.
So we can either keep on deceiving ourselves… or we can get real.
It is not easy to describe the human experience without running into our preconceived belief systems.
Even though I have read descriptions by Enlightened beings of what is real and what is illusion, it was still a total surprise for me to experience life outside the human square.
I have spent many years meditating, channeling energy and communicating with non-physical beings, but this has always taken place with ‘me’, the person, as the experiencer.
Recently changes have happened to the placement of this ‘experiencer’.
It began with an encounter with a group of gifted people at the Body Mind Spirit festival in Christchurch.
Margaret and I had gone to advertise our Soul Necklaces as we do every year. As I interacted with these people I knew that this was different to anything I had ever encountered.
The first sign of change was that I forgot to drink coffee the entire weekend. As a hardcore coffee addict I have never forgotten my daily shot without getting severe headache and dizziness. Anyway, I haven’t had coffee since (3 weeks and counting) or the desire to indulge.
After the weekend I started having very intense encounters with what some of you would probably say are human archetypes. I had discussions (sometimes very heated) with Jesus/Sananda, Ashtar, Archangel Michael, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Azrael and several other beings at the forefront of the struggle between Light and Dark.
I know, I know… if anybody had told me a similar story I would probably had written them off as borderline crazy.
As these meetings took place, with me as the mediator between the beings of Light and the beings of Individuality (as they prefer to be known) I noticed that my focus became more and more like a field/space rather than a person.
At some stage this consciousness field turned the world inside out and from then on I was not inside the Universe. Rather the Universe was inside the field of consciousness.
The whole issue of good and bad disappeared and I now see how both the Light and the Darkness act out of ignorance. Nature takes care of itself. Our nature takes care of itself.
Building and breaking down are two sides of the same coin. Without one, the other couldn’t exist. It is so simple that it is impossible to explain.
You ‘experience’ right now.
Allow that to be enough.
When we strive we fight. When we strive there is good and bad.
If we allow being to express itself; then and only then can wholeness take place.
This is a typical intellectual statement that takes several things for granted.
It was first coined by René Descartes, a French philosopher.
It has got some major loop holes:
If you stop thinking, then you aren’t.
Thinking comes before being.
Thinking validates being.
It takes for granted that there actually is an ‘I’ which is.
If you stop thinking, then you aren’t:
If a person is brought back from coma (brain activity, but no cognitive thinking) then they have been non existing for a while. This is obviously not how it works.
What about deep sleep when dreaming stops?
It is also possible to train your thoughts to stop in deep meditation.
Thinking comes before being:
If you have an experience, then you perceive a sensation. This is then translated (thought about) by your thinker. So being, as well as sensation comes before thinking.
Thinking validates being:
The thinker would like to be the validator, the regulator of reality. But, and this is a very big but, thinking makes things up! If the mind does not know what it is perceiving, then it makes it into something that makes sense to itself. (Consider optical illusions)
It takes for granted that there actually is an ‘I’ which is:
The thinker does not understand beingness. It therefore makes up a story because it cannot allow itself not to understand. But the story about ‘I’ is just that… a story, a made up fantasy about something the mind knows nothing about.
Whether or not there actually is an I is a different story (that we will tackle later), but it has nothing to do with the mind’s opinion about it.
Notice how we can talk about the mind. We can detach from it and look at it.
If we look at a few belief systems then we can begin to have some fun, because if we believe in a particular way, then it clearly starts shaping and defining the reality we find ourselves in.
Here are a few versions of a well known theme: CREATION
Traditional version
Once upon a time the One (God) decided to create the World.
This creation included galaxies, solar systems, planets, rocks and minerals, plants, animals & humans.
Humans were created as souls in the image of God.
Humans were at first inside Eden/Kingdom of God, but managed by their own actions to become excluded.
We have since called ourselves sinners and have struggled to find ways to re-enter Heaven. Most of these ways include belief in a religion. In most religions some people are more holy than others all the way to ‘incarnations’ or ‘sons of God’. If we believe in this and pray to these holy beings we too can get access to heaven, though mostly not until we are dead!
Conspiracy version
Once upon a time some very powerful aliens seeded life on planet Earth.
After millions of years of evolution some different aliens took some DNA from a humanoid creature and mixed it with their own. They then turned off most of the DNA that had to do with insight and supernatural powers. The result was Homo sapiens, a being made in their image but consciousness-wise ‘thick as a brick’. This human could then be manipulated by the aliens for their own means. This manipulation is still taking place and this is the basis for various conspiracy theories that states that some people know what is really going on while most of us don’t.
Esoteric version
The Prime Creator (God) continuously creates and continuously guides the various creations towards higher states of being. We are created in the (trinity) image of God (I Am Presence, Soul and body). This means that we are special and more precious that all the other creations. And because we are special it is our job/destiny to develop higher and higher levels of consciousness until one day we are co-creators of the universe (or maybe we will get a universe of our own).
The understanding of the Cosmic Laws and the practise of opening our consciousness through whatever means necessary (meditation, singing, mantras, dancing, drugs, sex etc) will gradually open us up to the wonders of the universe and we will step through the different levels of the Hierarchy until we reach cosmic consciousness. There are different thoughts as to whether this can be obtained by Will (occultism) or it can only be obtained by Love/Devotion (sainthood).
Advaita version
Advaita means One (non-duality) which indicates that there cannot be two, never mind three or more. Our sense of being separate entities is based on a misunderstanding. We live in a dream state where we, like when asleep, act as if we have real bodies in a real world. If we wake up from the dream we will clearly see that we are consciousness itself and as consciousness we will recognise that there is only One and I Am That. That will not change anything but it will clearly change our perspective. The terms Enlightenment and Awakening are often used to point towards the awareness of non duality. In the non duality view everything is perfect as it is. Things appear and disappear. Happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin. But there is only one coin. So even though life seems to have opposites, these opposites could not exist without each other and as such they are part of the same unit. The only obstacle to this awakening is the belief that we are not awakened and that there is therefore somewhere to go, something to strive towards or something to develop into. The second we understand that we have always been consciousness itself, at that moment the illusion of being separate falls away and we are left simply as consciousness.
I often ask myself why it seems so scary to challenge our own beliefs. Reality doesn’t care whether we believe this or that, so what is the big deal about having to believe in something. And why do we flick this questioning off as ridiculous?
Why are we so afraid of not knowing?
Every time we believe in something… anything really… we make up a reality. (Does that sound strange?) If we are making it up then it can’t be anything but illusion.
Dictionary: Illusion.
an erroneous mental presentation
something many people believe that is wrong
A lot of scientifically minded people would smile and say that their world view is based on fact and not illusion.
A lot of people of the Faith would smile and say that their world view is based on fact and not illusion.
Dictionary: Fact
a thing that is indisputably the case
a truth about events as opposed to interpretation
How far are you personally willing to go in order to find the truth? Or are you happy to live in a made up blob of make belief?
If we look at a couple of essential observations, then you can see what I am pointing at.
Most religions believe that there is only one creator. This creator created good/holy. Who created bad/evil? If there is only One, then there cannot be ‘other than’. There cannot be two ore more. Either God created evil or God is not allmighty.
Most scientists believe in the substance of matter. But the whole concept of matter as something either solid or stable disappears if you look closely enough at it. So maybe, if matter is not really there in the way we think it is, just maybe matter is not all there is. And maybe the way we think the Universe is, is not the way it really is.
Are we ready to look at reality without preconceived ideas and beliefs?
Humans are a funny lot. We have these thoughts and opinions about life.
Whatever we personally believe to be true is how we see the world. We are convinced that the way we see the world is the right way, and that our world is the real world.
But if/when we change our view of reality, then reality seems to change, and we are now convinced that this new way we see/understand life is the real one. Very rarely are we willing to consider that maybe the way we view the world is actually shaping/creating our reality.
Some people might feel threatened by the above statement.
Our beliefs are after all the only reference we have got about reality. Most scientists would argue that reality is that which can be measured, but since the fundamental building blocks of the atoms are difficult to measure then it is difficult to make any firm statement about what matter, and therefore reality, actually is.
Most spiritually minded people would agree that there is more to life than the level of matter. There seems to be other dimensions/levels of being in which conscious life is going on.
But when it comes to describing what exactly is going on then very few people agree. Non believers make this disagreement an argument for the fact that there is no higher world/heaven/other dimension. But if, as modern science states, the experiencer affects the outcome of an experiment, then it is suddenly not so straight forward to discard faith in a spiritual realm as superstition.
In the next few blogs I would like to have a look at different belief systems and the way they shape the particular reality we personally live in.
Soul Insights 