Conscious Living: Seeking the highest potentiality

Sometimes it is difficult to see through the haze of emotions, past experiences, neuroses, personality quirks and cultural and familial indoctrination in order to find your truth. In fact, this is probably one of the most difficult things to do once the decision to take your spirituality seriously is made. No matter what tradition you may practice, there remains the detritus of a lifetime’s worth of programming that must be identified, codified and sorted through in order to find the pure light of your spiritual self that lies beyond. The major religions all recommend certain spiritual tools that allow you to sift through the layers of the personality in order to accomplish this aim, to include affirmations, prayer, contemplation and meditation.

Within the structure of traditional religious practice, all of these tools serve certain ceremonial functions. People pray together in churches and mosques, they quote affirmations and meditate together in Sat-sang. Tales of faith designed to teach deeper spiritual lessons bind believers together within the ceremonial structure of the religion to create a common narrative that transcends individuals and cultures. The codification of belief has come to define aspects of societies to the extent that entire geographic regions of the world can be simultaneously assigned to disparate religious systems that also possess political characteristics as well. Because of this institutionalization effect, the structure of formal, spiritual aspiration takes on both the positive and negative aspects of politics and economics, resulting in the degradation of spiritual qualities and the elevation of consumptive qualities.

When spirituality becomes mass-produced, therefore, the danger of formal religion’s incapacity to elevate the individual soul to a higher plane of self-realization and existence becomes much greater. When church or mosque becomes a weekend jaunt, when prayer or meditation becomes only a social function, when affirmations become pithy quotes, spirituality dies a quick death and dogma sets in. Of course, the original capacity of each religious tradition to bring the seeker to a state of higher consciousness remains available, yet the path of such a person must then wend its way through all of the personal and cultural brambles that conspire to keep the true aspirant from self-realization. Working through your daily trials and tribulations is then experienced as a constant questioning of Self versus Other, of belief versus truth, of personal knowledge versus cultural tradition.

Are they lying to me? Do they know the real truth or is this just their interpretation? Is what I believe right or wrong? When seeking the elevation of the soul beyond the material planes of existence, when seeking to exemplify a higher form of living while still being incarnate upon this earth, when seeking to embody Divinity in thought and practice, these questions threaten the aspirant with immobility and doubt. It is at this point that tradition – the teachings of your religion, the experience of your own, personal spiritual explorations – comes into clarity. Seeking the highest potentiality, according to the system of truth that your own discernment has confirmed, becomes the way through the morass of doubt and ambiguity that ever threatens those without conviction.

The highest potentiality is the path that best exemplifies a divine passage through life’s disparate lessons. The form of the ever-present question becomes, what is the highest potentiality of this experience? Our individual growth depends upon the manner in which we deal with life’s trials and tribulations. How we respond to each test determines whether or not we have to repeat it, at a higher cost for each iteration. Seeking the highest potentiality allows us to consciously chart a course forward based upon our own personal spiritual knowledge and experience, no matter where we may be along the path. As we both succeed and fail during the course of our lifetimes, we gain a greater confidence in our ability to live our truth. How our personal truths then come to resemble and manifest the greater Truth that binds the cosmos together in love then becomes the indicator of our personal spiritual progress and the standard by which we come to live our lives in a conscious manner.

Living life consciously can only occur once we have recapitulated our lives, gone through our memory banks and examined each lesson we have learned for its deeper Truth. Once we have done this we become aware of the story of our lives, our own personal mythos. We become aware of the trends of our lifetime, whether we are the hero or villain – according to our personal belief system – and what the value of such assignations might be to the future course of our lives. We can then make the effort to live an examined life and become resolute in our desire to become better people and we are able to make conscious decisions about who we are and who we want to be. It is at this point that seeking the highest potentiality of each lesson becomes ingrained within our psyche and lived reality, allowing us to then embody our highest principles automatically and on a daily basis.

Coming to the point where we can live a conscious life is not an easy thing. Often, it takes personal trauma to get to the place where we can even examine our lives deeply enough to realize who we truly are because it takes being able to pierce the lies we tell ourselves as well as the lies we have taken on as our truth. That truth can hurt and, often, we have to be at a place where life experience has forced us in order to even want to examine our behavior and thought processes to that degree of detail. This is generally known as the dark night of the soul and results in the death of the Self and the rebirth of a new aspect of Self, better equipped to live your life honestly because of this direct-if-originally-unsought self-appraisal.

Mid-life crises, traumatic events, social ostricization or unforeseen occurrences and accidents can all result in the onset of the dark night of the soul and the resultant death of the self. And while it may seem like a negative thing when you are going through it, once you have come out the other side you realize the importance of what you’ve just experienced and are then prepared to live your life consciously in search of your highest potentiality. The tests never stop, because that is what life is all about. It never becomes easier, just different. Envisioning our experiences as cyclic and spiraling ever-higher as we continue to co-create our shared reality gives us the necessary perspective as well as the impetus to reach for the stars, seeking the truest manifestation of Self as we journey through our lifetimes in preparation for what lies beyond.

A little bit’a soul: Are you stuck in place?

Have you ever felt like you weren’t moving? Were not progressing? Were in a place of stasis, where every attempt you made to go forward was met by an invisible-but-irresistable force that kept you still, thoughts whirling furiously, frantically, mind wondering why?

You attempt to get ahead on the job but you are met with resistance from your co-workers and boss in the little things; the woman in the stall next to you won’t let you borrow her stapler; the guy down at the front door on security checks your badge just a bit longer than everyone else every day and you’re just wondering, why me? Or, your boyfriend, whom you want to leave, is suddenly the nicest person you ever met and all of the things you’d ever thought about him seemed suddenly non-existent? How about that friend who has always been there for you, changing up, becoming suddenly short-tempered and decidely non-friend-like? What in the world is going on?!

What do you do in times like this? Do you continue to press forward or stop for a moment to examine your motivations? Is it true that we are the Deciders? That our Will is paramount and that we can, if we desire it badly enough, do anything and everything that we choose?

Are there outside forces that act upon us in ways that restrict our free choice and possibilities?

Is it possible that other people can be agents of these outside forces? That greater forces are at work that move us inexorably in certain directions despite our invocation of choice, that Fate is, indeed, the ultimate Decider?

As an intriguing example, the convoluted and philosophically dense Matrix series examines these questions in detail, seeming to finally conclude that Fate and Free Will align outside of the limited purview of human consciousness at the level of archetypes and powers outside of space and time, relative to nothing that we understand – with our limited 5 senses – as stable, or real. The Architect and the Oracle, representing Yin and Yang – and representing greater forces of cause and effect – formed a duality that circumscribed Neo’s possibilities completely, his ruminations regarding his Free Will becoming, in the end, the fulfillment of yet another example of futile railings against the depradations of an endless series of non-linear prophetic threads that run through societal discourse the world across.

Where is the point of egress? Do you find yourself looking for it? Finding yourself stuck, do you search your life events, examining each moment and action, seeking a way out of the quagmire? Do you eagerly await the next synchronicity which may provide you with a way forward? Do you go within and examine your motivations after all? Find out if you are being true to yourself? Do you even know what being true to yourself is? Who you are? What you want?

And, if you do know who you are and what you want, does the stasis that you find yourself in suddenly make sense? Is it a waiting place, a purgatory of sorts between one lifestyle and another? Between one choice and the other? Between this person and that one? Between this place and the next?

It’s funny how, so many times, once we calm down, cultivate our silence and peace, go within and actually look and see where it is that we are within ourselves, that it becomes clear where we are outside of ourselves. Why the things in our lives manifest the way they do, why we are going through the drama, the mess, the pain, the frustration. And, equally amazing, is the fact that once we come to this realization, by doing an end run around the ego and seeking gnosis – by engaging the Self – suddenly, things open up, the resistance that you felt from people, events, things, seems to dissipate into thin air and the synchronicities that you have been waiting for begin to manifest and you find the path into the future opening wide, allowing you entrance into a place filled with light, love and understanding.

But more than that, you find yourself clear, even if only until the next experience of resistance arrives, and the entire process starts all over again. The ultimate realization is that this process can end with the understanding that perception is key, as is self-knowledge. Perception of forces in the outside world, their relation to your current state of mind and experiences, and your perception of yourself and your ego’s attempts to distract you from the Now, as well as its desire to keep you regretting (Past) and worrying (Future), and definitely not seeking within for self-knowledge, or paying attention without, for synchronicitous events.

But then, maybe all of this is just the echo of ruminations, thought spent in the imaginations of a febrile and slightly-off-kilter mind. Or, maybe, it just takes a little bit’a soul to get from there to here, where us crazy folk reside.

Love, Light and Predation: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Gurdjieff speaks of 4 ways. The way of the Fakir, the way of the Monk, the way of the Yogi and a 4th way. The way of the Fakir is total body control, the way of the Monk is total emotional control. The way of the Yogi is total mind control and the 4th way is a combination of the first 3.

In the religious life of most Americans, it is the way of the Monk that resonates the most. It is the way of our religious practices. Christianity deals primarily with the emotional body, and we see our world and our spiritual evolution in the context of feeling close to G-d, and feeling the love of G-d and demonstrating that love to those around us. We see our pain and heartaches as trials and tribulations, as ways by which G-d tests our souls and purifies us on the crucible of experience. A Monk dedicates himself to the glorification of G-d and the mortification of the body. Since all is contained within the Bible, intellectual pursuit is discouraged and prayer and dedicated reading, the method of coming to know G-d. G-d is in Heaven above, the devil is in Hell and the battle for souls is the cause for all horror on Earth.

Even as religious traditions give way to new understandings of eternal truths, many Seekers retain aspects of their original faith. From those who come from Christianity, the way of the Monk has been the path of their own personal experience. Surging past traditional understandings of bible-based Christian devotion, these individuals are gnostic in nature, seeking G-d within rather than without, and filled with the desire to distill the essence of Goodness from Divine experience, resulting in a holistic philosophy of Love, Light and Oneness, surrounding one’s Self with positive energy and sending out this energy to others, or to the world in general. This emanation of love radiates out into the environment much like the sun and its rays, affecting all around it. Or, if this energy is sent to a particular person, it pervades their emotional and mental space, augmenting whatever personal and external energetic sources might be affecting them also, in that moment.

I spoke here in great detail regarding energy propagation and siphoning. What I did not speak of, is that it is not just other people that siphon energy from us. In the Don Juan series, by Carlos Castaneda, the Mexican Sorcerer speaks in horrendous detail regarding the depredations of the Predator mind. The subjugation of human awareness and potential to the will of higher density entities. There is also the possibility of energy siphoning by Earth-bound spirits that accompany people upon their daily journeys. In the book of Matthew, Jesus cast many demons out of a man, and they retreated into pigs, who then drowned themselves in the sea. Stories of spirit possessions and poltergeists abound in the modern day. There seems to be little doubt that something beyond the ken of modern thought, quite strange and perhaps malevolent is going on all around and within each of us, as well.

The requirements of our daily lives are often enough to leave us breathless by nightfall and yet there are other, higher or lower demands upon our energy quotients. Channeling, Ouija boards, prayer and meditative states open conduits to these higher and lower influences and, unless great care is taken, can lead to negative consequences in the lives of the unwary. Releasing energy haphazardly, or without defined purposes, is, then, a dangerous proposition, considering the nature of Creation and the existence of Predators, be they human, ethereal or otherwise. Keep in mind that we ourselves, as humans, are Predators, and that the Law of Karma pervades the lower levels of consciousness.

In the Garden, the serpent slyly tricked Adam and Eve into eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, not the Tree of the Knowledge of Good. By concentrating only upon the Good, then, we minimize G-d and ignore a full half of the dichotomous spectrum, opening up ourselves and our lives to the depredations of Evil in the form of emotions, other people and events that combine to teach us exactly what we need to know to integrate the dark and the light, rather than focusing upon one to the detriment of the other. Filling one’s Self with love – ignoring the hate – non-reaction to negativity or forgiving without regard for propriety, or even assailing the Free Will of others by sending them unrequested energy, all can have unintended, and possibly calamitous, reprecussions.

We each choose a Path, and those who choose a Path out of the Light do so of their own Free Will, and it is Right and Good that it is so, giving the dichotomous nature of material incarnation. All possible permutations must find expression, the balance of energies must be maintained, even if they shift in favor of one side over the other, at times. This cyclic and spiraling resonance also is necessary.

Since all is One, all of this talk of Predators can be seen as an expression of psycho-spiritual dramas that we work out through deep-consciousness interactions within the span of lifetimes lived simultaneously – outside of time and space, i.e. perceptual dimensionality – as we each are reflections of the Infinite and Eternal “I”. All that is without is an expression of what is within. Practically speaking, our lives are the lessons we learn, and we work them out in the context of greater forces. The personal dramas in our lives can be seen as the expression of dramas originating in higher densities of conscious awareness. Or, in more metaphoric, mythological terms, the war between G-d and Lucifer is ongoing and works itself out in each and every one of our lives; G-d being the Multiverse and Lucifer being humanity, the return of consciousness from material incarnation to ethereal Oneness being the goal as we – our collective Soul-group – climb the branches of the Tree of Life.

As above, so below. If we as a human family feel justified in utilizing minerals, plants and animals as we will because our intellect and capacities place us at a level we perceive to be higher than theirs, then what is to prevent entities whose intellect and capacities place them at a level that is higher than ours from utilizing us in a similar fashion? Seeing us as energetic or material resources and sustenance? As food? And, if such were the case, then what types of strategies would these Predators use in order to capture, corral or confuse their prey? How would these strategies appear to us and what would be the signs of their success or failure?

Energy is a precious commodity. Our lifeforce, chi, kundalini, the very engine of our evolution. The discerning factor in whether or not we live a life of conscious intent or a life of unconscious ignorance is the choice we make regarding the seeking after knowledge for the purpose of gaining wisdom. In biblical terms, faith without works is dead. Believing without becoming that which is believed, living without practicing that which one knows is true. Wisdom strengthens us, faith is demonstrated as knowledge based upon immutable natural and spiritual laws. As understanding is gained, the ability of others to define us lessens. The ability of others to siphon our energy is reduced. The ability of others to consume us as food ends.

The coalescence of the 3 distinct ways under the holistic 4th way becomes the path less traveled, combining body, mind and heart in holistic resonation to the final stages of material incarnation. Conserving and utilizing our energies in proportions exact to the need of the moment indicates a gaining of wisdom and a consolidation of incarnate experience. Becoming cognizant of the energetic maelstrom within which we manifest experience is a necessary step in navigating it and finding our way through life’s storms intact, ready to take on the next stage of our spiritual, evolutionary development.