Be The Change: Are you a part of the problem or the solution?

I’m no fan of pie-in-the-sky dreaming.

Of reductionist thought that answers the real problems of real people in the real world with deeper truth platitudes that end discussion and leave people foundering, sullen and silently fuming as their issues are relegated to meaninglessness in the face of the absolute. This is not to say that being aware of the absolute truth of reality is problematic. Rather, it is to say that confronting the limited and material truths of our reality with the Absolute is not a solution, but is instead a communicative, verbal and vibratory weapon often designed to overwhelm less eternal truths.

An example of this is saying that race does not matter because we are all human. Most people do believe this is true. But bringing this truth up in a conversation about the Israeli/Palestinian problem, or the issue of black incarceration in the Prison Industrial Complex in the United States does not forward the discussion, nor does it offer any practical solutions that can be implemented in the resolution of the problem.

Solutions are what are needed. Heart-centered solutions that speak to the necessity of all people to have their sovereign rights as incarnate souls respected. This is  a basic human right of existence that cannot be gainsayed by any political ideology, philosophical treaties or religious creed.

The good news is that hearts and minds are opening daily. That consciousness is spreading like wildfire across the world as the inter connectivity provided by the internet becomes the ubiquitous mode of communication for the majority of the world’s citizens. Seeking solutions and salvation beyond the self in groups and institutions must be accompanied by a search for solutions within each of us for our own problems and issues. There can be no real movement for peace and unity when we do not each individually possess those qualities within ourselves.

A slight qualification of the above statement is in order: there can be such movements and have been and probably will be, but those movements will be corrupted at their heart and soul if those who comprise the movement are corrupted in their hearts and souls. The body of membership of any organization is the sum of that membership, inculcating their dreams and desires, which then become the mission and purpose of the group. No matter what their stated principles are, the words and actions of the group will reflect the collective will of their membership, manifesting even their unconscious dreams and desires, masked beneath an rhetorical facade that usually only pays lip service to the ideology publically espoused.

This is why politicians are always caught with their pants down and their bank accounts open, their integrity compromised. This is why corporate raiders and profiteers are concerned primarily with the bottom line, lining their pockets with obscene bonuses and wondering why anybody would complain. This is why preachers and priests do terrible things to children and the emotionally compromised. This is why we hate ourselves, secretly in our inner hearts and souls, desperately seeking salavation outside of ourselves because to look within and actually do something about what we find there is too painful to work with directly.

It’s all well and good to speak words of wisdom or quote the spiritual and philosophical masters and enlightened ones when that sharing is done in the spirit of giving and not in the spirit of taking. In this sense, taking praise from others, likes from the multitude, the verbal praise of having something that others lack, of being able to see into the heart of  situations and to share what is seen there in an empathic and seemingly loving manner is a gift of the spirit and can be easily recognized for its resonance factor and embodiment of higher energetic frequencies. Conversely, doing such in the context of a personal battle of wills or in the making of points that emphasize an individual and egoistic attachment to self-gratification through the adulation of the hoi polloi serve to densify and further stratify personality in a hierarchical and energetically vampiric structure of vanity and egoism. Differentiating between these two types of expression is a stark but necessary maneuver for those who seek to recognize the real from the facade. Platitudes and truisms used as weapons in order to win an argument or in response to a perceived slight on the part of others are platitudes and truisms used in vain.

They are indicative of BEingness that is self-centered and ego-centric. Granted, that consciousness may be and probably is on the road of spiritual and philosophical enlightenment, but in that particular instance they have been waylaid by the intellect of ego and the densification of anger, affront or judgement, which renders their judgement faulty. This is a condition of creation and material incarnation and there is no fault in living in the real and being cognizant of the process of gradual evolution, which is indeed a process, meaning, it does not happen instantaneously for most people. It takes a while to grow and learn through experience how to truly become wise instead of just appearing so.

The solutions to all of the world’s problems are already known. The way to get there has already been laid out. The world’s problems are the same as each of our individual problems, just magnified and fractalized at a larger scale of macrocosmic occurrence. It is in the application of this knowledge to ourselves that we fail to apply the solutions that the world needs. And it will only be when we begin as a collective to recognize our individual failings and the interconnectivity of all consciousness that we will understand that by helping ourselves we are indeed helping the world.

The change begins with each of us. It has already begun and is well in progress. Are you a part of the solutions? Or a part of the problem?

Make a difference. Beyond the platitudes and quotes, we must indeed be the change we want to see in the world. Words must lead to actions in order for the shift to be actualized and manifest for us and our children and our children’s children to enjoy a world based upon a very different paradigm than the one that is failing around us in this very moment.

Don’t Outsmart Yourself: Participating in a civilized and elevated society

I used to think I was people-smart. Meaning, that I understood the motivations of other people. And by understanding their motivations, I could read, understand and explain their behavior. I thought I was people-smart because I’ve been known to be right, to be able to predict people’s behavior, before. I think we all pride ourselves on being able to do this to one extent or another.

I now realize that being people-smart in the way that I was proud of being is not a virtue. It is instead an indication of the nature of my own thought processes and is not necessarily where they are coming from. There’s a saying that I’ve used for years that I generally understood the meaning of, but that I never really applied to me and my behavior at every level that it should be applied.

“We hate most in others what we hate most about ourselves.”

I understood on the surface what that meant: if someone likes to get angry at other people, I used to feel a self-righteous anger because they were getting angry. I would think to myself, how dare they impose their anger on someone else and express it that way? They are wrong for that and I am righteous for being upset that they are so wrong. Or, how dare they speak to someone that way? They are wrong for that and I am righteous for being upset that they are so wrong.

Sometimes it’s hard to hold a mirror up to ourselves to see the insanity of our own behavior.

I went around for many years doing this. In fact, I still have to catch myself doing it sometimes. Observing people, watching them, looking at their behavior and predicting why they do certain things. Engaging in entire flights of fancy regarding their thought processes, motivations and the possible consequences as they pertained to current and future actions and the ramifications of those actions. I could look at someone’s expression and tell you matter-of-factly what they were thinking. I could listen to a conversation and tell you what something someone said really meant. I could do this by observing their body language, listening to the words they used, the tone, watching and listening for the subtle clues that give an indication of underlying motives, of where words and actions do not necessarily coincide.

Don’t get me wrong, as I said before, I was right some of the time. I’ve studied body language, learned how to tell how people lie, why they lie, when they lie, where their eyes look when they’re making the lie up, the way hands or legs twitch or move or grasp each other when they’re telling the lie, the way shoulders are hunched or not when they’re lying to cover up the original lie, toes tapping, body rocking, lip or nail-biting, ear-pulling, tone-shifting, practically all of the little tell-tale signs that indicate the thought processes underlying the words as the lies pile up on top of each other. We can all do this to a greater and lesser extent, but I prided myself on having actually gone out to learn specifically how to do so in order to increase my abilities that much more.

But it is all vanity, in the end. Because what I have ultimately learned is that we can never know for certain where someone is coming from, what someone is thinking. We can look at their eyes and body language and listen to their words and come to an approximation. We can observe all of the signs and clues and come up with an idea. But we can never know for sure what is going through another person’s head.

But even more importantly than that, is that we shouldn’t try. To the extent that it evolves into more than assuring our basic survival it becomes another ego-tool utilized as a way of controlling one’s environment and other people; it is, in essence, an act of aggression and an energetic imposition of structure upon what should be and is, essentially, structure-less. And, by attempting to read another person in depth we are ignoring what we should be paying more attention to: ourselves. We are not responsible for other people. Other people’s actions are not our responsibility. What other people are doing, how they are acting, even as it affects us, is not our problem. It is theirs. Let me say that again, another way: anything anybody else does around you or to you is their business, not yours.

If someone does something that affects you negatively, then it is necessary that we look at ourselves in order to determine what we did to exacerbate the situation. If you get in an argument with someone and they harangue and berate you, then you need to look at how you set yourself up to be in that position in the first place. How did you set that person off? What did you do or say that brought that negative energy out in them?

Does that sound like too much for you to take on? Does it sound insane to you? I realize that this is not a popular way to be. It can even be said that this is not a natural way to be, if being under the sway of the emotions is considered to be our natural state. But it is the compassionate way to be. It is the civilized way to be. It is the elevated way to be. It is the way forward that leads to a civilized and elevated interaction. To civilized and elevated relationships. To civilized and elevated societies.

By allowing people the sovereignty of their own thoughts and behavior and accepting responsibility for your own, you are driving all blame into one. You are making the decision to become sovereign yourself, to no longer accept the cop-out of blaming others, of placing sovereignty outside of yourself and being a victim. It’s way too easy to blame other people for your problems, for your situation. It’s way too easy to blame your ex for your emotional disfunction. It’s way too easy to blame your old boss for your current lack of a job. It’s way too easy to blame your parents for your childhood. It’s way too easy to blame God for your tribulations.

People will surprise you when given the chance. Some people, I should amend. Some will do exactly what you think they will, what the signs show and tell you they will, each and every time. But it is not your place to pidgeon-hole them like that. It’s not our place to limit their potentiality in that manner, even if it is only in our own minds. Because when we expect someone to speak or act in a certain way, we then adapt our own speech and behavior in anticipation of that response and by so doing project that framework onto and into the other person. You are, in essence, using the emotional energetic link you are engaged in to create a holographic reality through the force of your imagination that limits the potentialities of the moment to the extent that the other person is incapable of transcending the contextuality of the interaction, which is difficult, given the tendency of emotions to sync in conflict approximating a cause and effect feedback loop that, generally, can only escalate unless outside intervention occurs. Is it then little wonder that they live up to your expectations by engaging in the behavior that you have set them up to fulfill?

By taking the opportunity to examine your own behavior and seeing where you caused your current situation or emotional state, you are recapitulating your life. You are engaging in a life-review, something that most people only do at the time of death. By doing it early you are taking control of your personal ethical and spiritual evolution. You are making a statement to the universe that you accept the responsibility of being a sovereign soul. You are releasing others to eventually become responsible for their own thoughts, words and actions by removing yourself from their equation, not letting your thoughts, words and actions give them the excuse to engage in karma-building behavior. You are making the choice to move forward into the future in control of your thoughts, in control of your words and in control of your actions.

There are so few people walking around the planet right now that are in full control of their thoughts, words and actions that by being one of those who are, you are courting the state of awakening and contributing directly to the overall state of enlightenment of the human race. Because, of course, this is an integral part of the overall Enlightenment process. An important realization on the way to understanding that love and compassion, as the expressions of relative bodhicitta, are the direct pathways to manifesting ultimate bodhicitta, which is resting in permanent abiding and silencing the nigh-automatic discursiveness of the uncontrolled mentality.

For many of us, it’s an ingrained habit to attempt to control our immediate environment by projecting our own thought processes onto others. And it gets worse every time we get lucky and turn out to be right. Because then we think we’re on to something, we get all high and mighty, proud and self-congratulatory. It is ego-clinging to the extreme. Egocentricity. The mind holding itself above others, prideful, disdainful, presumptuous. These are qualities to be culled from the personality structure and the only way to do so is by driving all blame into one. Accepting responsibility for our part in the dual or multiple-nodal collaborations that our interpersonal interactivity represents within the flow of time and space that we call our lives.

This teaching is not for everybody.  Some will read this and think, what?!  And that is fine.

Drive all blame into one. Take responsibility for everything. Even things that you really do think are other people’s fault. Make it a mental exercise where you are trying to find the place in the sequence of events where you last take responsibility for the outcome. Eventually, the teaching will become second nature and you will find that your own nature becomes more civilized, more elevated.

More Enlightened.

For those with eyes to see, let them see. For those with ears to hear, let them hear.

All others will come to understanding in their own time.

A Comedy of Errors: True responsibility versus the social compact

People use the word responsibility all the time. Some times in reference to things that they feel that they have to take care of and other times in reference to other people and their lack thereof. The word can be comforting or it can cause pain. It can be a weapon or a healing balm. It’s use and meaning can vary over time and space. To different people, it can mean different things. In different parts of the world it can mean different things. And yet, for such a powerful term, it is curiously unremarked upon.

re·spon·si·bil·i·ty (r-spns-bl-t)

n. pl. re·spon·si·bil·i·ties

1. The state, quality, or fact of being responsible.

2. Something for which one is responsible; a duty, obligation, or burden.

If you break the word down into its component parts it looks something like this:

re·sponse  (r-spns)

n.

1. The act of responding.

2. A reply or an answer.

3. A reaction, as that of an organism or a mechanism, to a specific stimulus.

a·ble (bl)

adj. a·bler, a·blest

1. Having sufficient power or resources to accomplish something: a singer able to reach high notes; a detergent able to remove stains.

2. Usage Problem Susceptible to action or treatment: The brakes were able to be fixed.

3. Especially capable or talented.

 A duty then. A burden, an obligation to respond, reply, react or give an answer and being capable or having the resources or power to accomplish it.

We are responsible according to our own personal choices to self, family, friends and society to varying degrees. We each have examples in our lives of things that we feel that we are responsible for. Responsibility is a choice.

It is a choice to respond and the ability to do so. To react to a situation in a capable manner.

Individually, we are each responsible for our own thoughts, words and actions. Because the mind can be controlled, every thought that we have is a choice. Because the muscles that move the body can be controlled, every word we say and action we take is also a choice.

We don’t have to think certain things. If we choose to and practice, we can turn off the constant running chatter of thoughts that passes through our brain. Dwelling on the past and the future is not necessary. Dwelling on thoughts of people and situations that give rise to feelings of jealousy, avarice, hatred, passion or even love is a conscious choice. It is a choice that takes us out of the moment, out of the Now, and into the indeterminate space of contemplation, removing us from our outer environment and immersing us within the inner creative environment of imagination and emotivity.

The thoughts we allow our minds to entertain are always of the imaginative variety as none of them are based in reality in any way other than containing a cast of characters based upon real people, or a series of events based upon what we think are potential occurrences given the information that we possess at the time. How we recall the past, how we create the future with our thoughts is totally constructed by the series of synapses and connections within our neural nets and the emotional content that the images give rise to and that we use to determine which potential path holds the best possible outcome for our current emotional state and belief system.

None of it is real until we attempt to make it so. We remember selectively. Our perceptions are bounded by our capacity to process information and our knowledge bases, which limits our ability to understand everything going on around us. Often, things did not happen in the past in the manner that we envisioned, nor did the events hold the emotive weights to others that we might have given them at the time.

When we think about current events, our perceptions fail us as well. We do not have all of the information, and yet we attempt to forecast other people’s actions, or how situations will play out. None of it comes to pass outside of our minds and in the ‘real world’ in exactly the manner we had envisioned it either because there are other actors involved. Other people who are acting out the plays they’ve also envisioned in their minds. The Comedy of Errors that our lives then become is in direct correlation to the lack of clarity and knowledge that we bring to the table in each circumstance and instance of interaction with other sentient beings and the natural world.

The interplay of multiple consciousnesses engaged in personal, mental dramas upon the sound-stage of 3D reality is life as we know it. Our engagement with the social system and our interpersonal connections to others comprise our levels of responsibility. The social compacts that we agree to as we mature within the different cultural realms of production across the world determine the nature of that responsibility.

As individuals living within greater systems that integrate ritual and belief in a criss-crossing interweaving of institutions and interactions, lesser and greater forms of coalescence around ideologies and material manifestations of such in all areas of people activity including capacity limitation, intellectual bounding, moral culpability, interpersonal interactivity and individual and collective responsibility, we make the conscious choice to maintain the system with our acquiescence and our mental and physical support. We become the system and uphold the system as an agreement with others within the system.

Our responsibilities are then determined by outside forces that we have internalized. Our choices are then bounded by a complex of ideas and formulations that limit our capacity to respond creatively to life and to the unlimited potentialities that surround us because of this mental encapsulation that we subscribe to and represent in our words and actions, if not our thoughts. We become beholden to family, to friends, to society. We limit our thoughts, our words, our actions based upon what others think of us or because of our fear of the potential ramifications of going beyond the boundaries and the imposed responsibility of societal production.

Responsibility in the cultural sense often has to do with the continued propagation of society. Inter-generational societal production. It is almost as if cultures were alive, thinking and conscious entities comprised of countless individual souls who live and die within them much like cells within organic bodies. They are born and die without remark but the body lives on. Humans engage different processes of societal production during their lifetimes, acting very much like cells and we often attempt to pass on our roles to our children, who then pass them on to theirs. We re-create what are often outdated memes as we are conditioned to do even as the world changes around us. Culture must conform to the world within it is expressed, response must be commiserate with ability.

At a certain point, those who seek freedom through spiritual practice come to recognize the limitations of societal responsibility and make different choices. It becomes possible to recognize personal responsibility and to cast off imposed structures that are not necessary for one’s own progress in life. But the ramifications of such are not without consequence. Social censure and castigation, banishment or disowning, disapproval, anger, disappointment and every other form of emotional and physical punishment available, even unto bodily harm and death, are the potential costs an individual must pay for their mental and physical freedom.

The higher notions of philosophical and spiritual responsibility of collective involvement and interactivity is bolstered by the quantum realities of entanglement and superposition. Everything and everyone is connected in a web of consciousness and choice is a matter of perception and attention resulting in the collapse of the wave function into a pattern of lived reality corresponding to personal knowledge or belief. We are individuals acting within a collective, affecting it but possessing our own unique perspectives. We engage others’ perspectives and enter into and exit different time-lines and realities with the course of each series of thoughts, words and actions. This is the real nature of responsibility: to be true to ourselves and, by doing so, being true to the whole.

The only physical responsibility we are born with is to ourselves. Whatever we do is our destiny; is the way it is supposed to be. The only spiritual responsibility we are born with is to our own  evolution of consciousness. However we individually evolve is of benefit to the All, is an expression of exactly how things are supposed to turn out. Everything else that we pick up along the way that cause us to doubt ourselves, to self-flaggelate and to entertain worry and regret is to misunderstand the nature of incarnation and life and to misappropriate time and energy upon pointless recrimination.

Life is not designed to be thought out, it is designed to be lived. Taking it as it comes, immersing yourself in the Now opens up the vistas of possibility unto the infinite, releases flows of energetic potentiality that expand human ability beyond dreams and material limitations. Choose your responsibilities wisely and make the choices that lighten your soul instead of those that increase the burden. Accept where you are and what you can do based upon your options in the Now. Be prepared for immediate change by keeping your mind clear and open and watching for the synchronicities that lead you upon your soul’s perfect path.

But mostly, do what you have to do. Own your thoughts, words and actions without regret. It is our most pressing responsibility in life.

The Greatest Secret: Collective trauma and civilization

There is still a Great Secret out there. One that is not really a secret. But, at the same time, it is.

It is so secretive it is hidden in plain sight. It is such a big secret that you can visit public buildings in many major cities of the world and see evidence of it. It is such a big secret that many people have heard about it at some point in their life. It is such a big secret that you can find it on the Internet if you know what to look for. It is such a big secret that there have been wars fought and atrocities performed to keep it hidden. It is such a big secret that it is the subject of one of the biggest cover-ups in the history of humanity.  It is such a big secret that it threatens the very foundations of Western civilization.

Great secrets are kept because their overturning would set the world as we know it afire. Those who participate in the keeping of these secrets understand fully that it is impossible to hide truths. The attempt to conceal a truth only works for a while. But after a truth becomes readily available to those who seek it, instead of trying to conceal it again, all attempts are made to discount it, distort it and deny it.

Great secrets must be kept because their revelation throws everything else into question. Once a great secret’s truth is accepted, the individual and group is then forced to confront the fundamental assumptions that underlie their perception of truth and reality as they know it. The greatest secrets threaten the philosophical and spiritual underpinnings of a society and, once revealed, point the way to a larger conception of reality and a broader understanding of what the world really is and what their place is in it.

But this is exactly why great secrets are kept. For the purpose of control.

In the current times, it is impossible to keep any secret whatsoever, let alone a great secret. Everything that has ever been done in the dark is now being seen in the light. All of the minor secrets subordinate to the greatest secret are being revealed. As a result, Western society is coming closer and closer to being forced to accept the greatest secret as pure, unadulterated truth.

The ramifications of this acceptance hold grave consequences for the plans of the currently in-fighting Elite factions and their minions; those who have invested in the suppression of the Great Secret. The investiture of belief and support into paradigm-changing secrets is tantamount to giving your life to the secret. Therefore, once the secret is revealed, the life based upon it dissipates, leaving the individual so invested bereft, left drifting upon an ideological, philosophical and spiritual raft rapidly breaking apart beneath them.

Movies point to the Great Secret. Television shows of all types. Books do also. Religion, spirituality, the manifestations of culture and society all are signposts pointing the way to the revelation of the Great Secret. Language itself reveals the Great Secret. The mechanics of dreaming and astral travel. The Great Secret is the key to unlocking the gateway to the soul.

Once a Seeker has caught the scent of the Great Secret their pursuit of it will lead them down the rabbit hole and even beyond, as the rabbit hole must eventually end and the Great Secret is boundless. Speaking about the Great Secret to family and friends will often elicit either amusement or shock, depending upon their state of consciousness. But because the Great Secret is nearing the surface of mass, popular awareness, every whispered question, every triumphant discovery of a heretofore unknown fact, every answer found that brings up multiple new questions affects the awakening process of the collective.

Once the Great Secret becomes widely known and irrefutable by any dastardly machinations of an embattled Elite or disempowered NWO technicians society as we know it will crumble and a new form of society and interpersonal interaction will take its place. This new form of society will be more egalitarian, based upon Divine and Natural Law, not the corrupted and pyramidal form of law currently institutionalized by the Roman Cult.

Collective trauma will be one effect of the revelation of the Great Secret. It is unavoidable. Some will be unable to accept the truth. These individuals and groups will deny it and potentially engage in violence in order to repress it. For others it will be too much and they will commit suicide. Truth dispels lies and some will not be able to live with their life-long complicity. That truth, once known irrefutably is like water in its purifying and cleansing aspect, remorselessly dissipating any weak or false constructs until all that is left is the pure essence of a thing.

The revelation of the Great Secret will destroy the institutional edifice of formal religion. It will destroy the institutional bedrock of the political, legal and economic systems. It will even draw the wind from the sails of those who consider themselves on an alternate path, especially those who have not challenged and overcome their most basic assumptions about reality.

These individuals, in particular, will be among the hardest hit mentally, emotionally and spiritually as they are forced to reevaluate their version of reality thereby coming to the unavoidable conclusion that they were really invested in the system the entire time they thought they were not. Being so compromised their karmic responsibility is the same at those they previously decried as being asleep, or sheeple, when they, also, have been locked consciously in vested ignorance.

The Great Secret is simple. All Truth is. The Great Secret is all-encompassing. It is the pass-code that unlocks every other secret that has been kept to maintain the control system for hundreds and even thousands of years. The absolute revelation of the Great Secret will even blow away those who consider themselves open-minded. Even now, every single person in the world, no matter their position in life, their wealth, their possession of power of any sort, is enslaved by a system of belief and corruption absolutely dependent upon the mass acceptance of the illusory reality.

Even those who have already been exposed to the Great Secret only really understand it intellectually. They believe it. They think they know it. They hope it is true. But there has been no unassailable evidence produced as of yet. No smoking gun. And once its truth is unquestionable, even their sense of reality and truth will morph and transform.

Until such time as public revelation of the Great Secret occurs, it remains contentious. If I wrote it here, now, you, the reader and your logical mind still has the space – and is heavily programmed – to deny its validity. You have been trained to reject it automatically from the time you first began to explore your world.

I will end by telling you that you are exposed to the Great Secret daily. Every one of you. If not in your home then out on the streets. You see it on the internet or in the movies; you can watch it on television or hear it on the radio or your ipod. You learn about it from grade school to college. You see it at the heights of social acclaim and at its dregs. You may feel pity when you see it. You may feel anger or hate. Or you may love it without really knowing why. You may distrust it and look away from it or you may embrace it and attempt to move closer to it.

The Great Secret is inside of us and it is out in the cosmos. You can look both outwards and inwards and find the Great Secret looking right back at you, singing to you, laughing with you and crying with you. It engages your deepest fantasies and embodies your most private fears. The Blackness within your mind reveals the Light.

You know the Greatest Secret.

Really.

You do.

Dreams, Fears and Conscious Spiritual Evolution: Is something changing?

What are dreams about? How do we come to terms with our fears? Is there something going while we are sleeping that we should all know about?

The following conversation is merely an approximation and represents the gist, not the exact content, of a real IM conversation held some years ago. The dream that followed represents a pattern, a dream-type that seems to be more than just the recounting of the day’s lessons: 

 Slightly-tilted Girl: Do you have bad dreams? 

Rahkyt: No. I haven’t had a bad dream in years.

Slightly-tilted Girl: Must be nice. Sometimes I have the kind that makes me wake up screaming and shouting with fear.

Rahkyt: I don’t recall ever having that type of dream. I am able to control my dreams.

Slightly-tilted Girl: Oh. Must be nice.

Rahkyt: It is. LOL

Rahkyt: Remember when we had that conversation about fear, and I said that I didn’t have any?

Slightly-tilted Girl: Yeah.

Rahkyt: Well, I do. I’m afraid for my children and their future. And I’m also afraid of what will happen when my parents die.

Slightly-tilted Girl: Those are good ones. I am, too.

 Approximately 6 hours later: 

 It was a twilight world, lush and verdant, the sound of strange whooping and supersonic twitters indicative of abundant and supernatural life. I wasn’t alone. With me were children and a few other companions, at least one of which was a guide. I cannot recall their faces in the haze of the dream-state, but I seemed to possess certain knowledge that the children were my own progeny. We followed a small, neat road that gradually declined into what seemed to be a deeper and darker region of the forest. 

 The trees loomed closer as we descended, turning the twilight into almost-night, and then we were through, into a circular clearing, within which squatted a surreal, menacing compound. A low, sprawling house lay at the opposite end of the clearing, its expanse disappearing beneath the canopy of the surrounding forest. Numerous, dark windows emanated sentience and the house seemed to have a presence that was aware of our arrival. As the road wended across the clearing, to the left of us was a caged enclosure, oval shaped and slightly derelict. The links were rusted and vines twisted their way through them in places. Within the cage was a wooden structure, a small pool and, something else. 

 It possessed what can only be described as an exaggerated human shape. If the thing had been standing, it would have been over three meters tall, but as it was stalking the close confines of the cage on all fours, its size was only slightly less terrifying. He was obviously male and quite pale-skinned, with lanky, dirty-blonde hair that hung over a face dominated by a pronounced, crooked nose. As I observed at the creature, I realized that there was something very strange about it and then, with a shock, realized what it was. Its body was inverted. Instead of its back facing the ground, two, pale pink nipples, encrusted with dirt stared at the sky. Its genital region was inadequately covered by a torn cloth of indeterminate color. Its knees and elbows were bent skyward, giving the creature a spider-like appearance. Conversely, its head was situated in a normal manner, chin toward the ground, head swaying from side to side and eyes staring forward dully, seeming not to notice our encroachment within its territory. 

 The words, ‘That is my son’, startled me out of my amazement and I turned toward the main house to find a short, old man with dense white hair covering his head and face standing close to us. He wore a white suit and thick, black glasses. His aura was kind, but exuded a disturbed, nervous aspect that washed over me, only adding to my increasing dread. 

More conversation followed and our small party followed the old man into the house, where the details of the dream grow blurred. The interior was dark and dense with possessions, books, curios, and weird statues filled small rooms punctuated by numerous doors leading further into the maze-like house. We had dinner, some discussion regarding the purpose of our visit - which had to do with procuring something, I believe - and then I and the children were shown to our room. 

 I slept, and was awakened - during this dream - by a clear feeling of sluggishness and alarm. My eyes opened to the sight of the creature looming over me, placing some sort of clear, plastic cup filled with a white, gaseous substance over my mouth. 

 The sheer stench of the thing was accompanied by a piercing sensation of hatred and evil, its dark, black eyes burning with an unadulterated malevolence. Sneering, slavering bile flowed from its cavernous maw and it turned from me, toward my children, its harmful intent apparent. An abject feeling of terror overcame me and I was animated by this primal urge toward protection and, as the energy built within me, my state of perception changed. 

 It was at this point that I became aware that I was dreaming lucidly and, as the energy surged within my astral form, in the real world I kicked, my legs twisting the bed sheets wildly askew and I could hear myself grunting in sheer terror, ‘uunhhh, uunhhh, uunhhh!’ as my torso rose slightly from the bed as well. 

 My wife’s voice, commanding me to ‘Stop that’, coincided with my eyes opening weakly, witnessing, directly above me and to the left, the retreat of a wispy, ethereal figure that mirrored the appearance of the terrifying creature of my dreams, its arms held out towards me, beckoning, or, more probably, releasing. The presence quickly evaporated into the darkness of the room as I came more fully into myself, leaving behind only a malevolent and wry amusement that permeated my conscious mind. I said nothing in response to my wife - being slightly embarrassed by my sleeping outburst - and I turned to face the wall and window of our bedroom, my mind whirling with the implications. I was soon asleep again, the rest of the nights dreamings lost in the depths of my subconscious mind. 

 Was this a conscious visit on the part of some otherworldly power, or was this just a subconscious fear manifesting during my dream-state? Was this creature a real Being that came to me that night in order to directly refute my earlier statement, made in a proud and vain manner; and, if so, why? Who sent it? What did this mean? 

Upon awakening this morning, the memory of this dream and my embarrassing conduct made me think that something is changing in the world around me. The last few nights have been very weird, as far as my dream-life has been concerned. I have been waking at odd intervals and having short, fleeting dreams that are quite vivid in nature, although most recede into the haze of the night. But a few have been memorable and, without making any extra effort, I have been remembering them the next day with very little effort, although that has been very difficult for me to do for years. I don’t have a history of night-terrors during the dream-state, so the coincidence of having this dream the same night that I had that IM conversation was absolutely too much to just pass off as insignificant. 

 During the last little while, the days have reflected the tumultuous behavior of my dream-life, being alternately sluggish and confused, my tongue belabored, my mind racing from here to there, with concentration difficult to achieve. A sense of overwhelming emotivity, short tempered interactions, emotions rising from nowhere and subsiding just as quickly, a yearning for peace and release from the pressures of the daily grind have all combined in what seems to be a crucible of time and space leading me directly to this place in my life. 

 I realize that my primary fears are directly connected to my children, and to their safety, and that, somehow, the energy matrix that were all connected to at a subconscious level is consciously working to bring our fears and desires forth, into the light of our direct awareness. At least, it seems so for me. Encompassing those fears and recognizing them is the first step to denying them power over our lives and moving past them into a true state of fearlessness. But the difficulty of doing so hardly needs mentioning. This is an important stage of self-evolution, related directly - to those familiar with Star Wars lore - to the example of Luke Skywalker facing himself in the Guise of Darth Vader in the Cave of Destiny, on Yoda’s planet. After doing so, he was able to direct The Force and truly achieve his destiny as a Jedi Knight. 

 Releasing this fear, again, is so hard to do, because it means releasing my children to their own destinies, not fearing for them and trusting the Multiverse to take care of them. For many of us, this sounds crazy. We can’t even conceive of seeming to not care for our loved ones, or want to protect them, because the logical continuation of this thought process, or transformed perception of reality, seems cold and callous to most people as exemplified by the question, ‘if somebody raped and killed your daughter and you saw that person and had the opportunity to do something to them, would you?’ 

 For me, right now, I would be highly tempted, very highly tempted, to kill them, straight up, because my fear-complex and connection to my children would almost automatically kick in and the rage that I felt at one of their deaths would be almost too much to bear. But, for the individual who has passed the fear complex and has moved into a state of continuous Universal Love would not do so, would have compassion for this individual and proceed accordingly, being beholden to a Higher Law of Love and Understanding.   

If given the choice to consciously evolve, knowing that it would require you to let go of all of your emotional ties to your friends, family and everything else you hold dear, would you choose to do so? 

I‘ll leave it here. But dreams are important and have meaning. These questions are the very stuff of life itself. Even though they’re difficult to talk about, to admit, or to answer in our own minds, there is nothing more important in our lives than the condition of our souls, and the future that we choose to manifest and live. 

The Rules of Capitalization: The spiritual lies we live

It is often difficult for people to handle the Truth. We all have our “little t” truths, but when it comes to the “big T” Truths that speak to aspects of “big S” Self as opposed to “little s” self, we often do not want to hear it. People can go an entire lifetime running from Self and Truth. In fact, even understanding that there is a difference between self and Self, truth and Truth can be too much for many to handle. Here are two examples of “little t” truth versus “big T” Truth:

Money will make you happy. That is a “little t” truth. Money will give you the capacity to pay your bills, to buy gifts for people during birthdays and special celebrations, to get things that you desire and think you need in your life.

More money, more problems. That is a “big T” Truth. Money will not only allow you to take care of the material things in your life that you need, it will also allow you to engage in behavior that you may desire, which is not the same as need. Indulging our desires is the quickest way to find out who we truly are and, sometimes, that is not necessarily a good thing.

Now here are two examples of “little s” self versus “big S” Self.

I’m an individual. I like certain things and dislike other things. This is an example of the “little s” self. There are things that happen in life that make us happy and sad. Naturally, we like the things that make us happy and we dislike the things that make us sad. Our bodies react to our thoughts by sending a cascade of chemicals out from the hypothalamus (neuro-peptides) that suffuse our cells, changing their state, which we call having an emotional reaction. Being happy, being sad, etc. Chemical reactions which are imminently controllable, if we so choose. Our emotions are powerful and they are often an important factor in the decisions we make in our lives.

We are One. We are all a part of God.  This is an example of the “big S” Self. Also called the Higher Self or one of the 72 Names of God, we are, individually, like cells in a human body or like droplets in the ocean, a part of something larger and beyond our individuated consciousnesses. Being such, we are not our egos or personalities, we are the silent stillness of Awareness that lies beneath the thoughts that often course remorselessly through our minds. This Awareness is our connection to our Higher Self and to that higher Divinity which lies beyond. This is who we really are. The core of our BEing, that which is aligned with the Eternal and Infinite.

Coming to understand these differences between self and Self, between truth and Truth is coming to terms with the reality of the holographic matrix within which we live and carry out the conditions of our lifetimes. Our “little t and s” truths and selves are the ego-bound, personality-driven, limited almost mechanical constructs through which we view the world and our interactions. They are the product of our upbringings, our family values, our societal mores and our conceptions of dualistic existence. It consists of our likes and dislikes, our rights and wrongs, our goods and bads, our positives and negatives.

Our “big T and S” Truths and Selves are our connection to each other, to the world and to the cosmos and the Infinite and Eternal beyond even that. They are our resonant response to the thrill and joy of existence, to the contradictory and yet supportive conditions of a limited material existence and an unlimited immaterial existence. The contradictory understanding that we will die, and yet we will live again. That we have only a short while upon this earth, yet there is no end to what lies beyond.

A general response to these Truths that lie beyond the ken of too many is an immersion within the daily grind. A concentration upon minutia. An over exaggeration of our physical bodies to the detriment of our spiritual bodies. An elevation of the emotional and personal entrapment to the exclusion of a greater form of emotional and personal detachment. We often desperately hold on to the “I”, to the “me”, so that we don’t have to admit the existence of a greater “We”. The contradictions of our existences demand this willful blindness to the Truth in favor of our truths.

To enjoy material life in the Western cultures is to celebrate the “I” and the “me” over the “We”. To live within a capitalist culture is to celebrate the “I” and the “me” over the “We”. To continue to internalize the inherently separative qualities of our culture, we must create a virtual battlezone within ourselves between self and Other, the Other in this instance being everyone outside of self, to include family members and friends. This results in the fundamental schism of a lifetime, when considering the fact that, in order to alienate others, we must first create division and separation within ourselves. This division and separation comes at the cost of the greater “We” and often occurs at a very young age.

The journey of a lifetime then becomes a reclaiming of the innocence of childhood; an innocence that recognizes the Truth of Oneness and a resonant, compassionate understanding in the collectivity of BEingness. We are alike, we share more in common than may be immediately obvious, your good fortune is mine, your happiness is my joy. Being happy for your sister because she is happy, celebrating your friend’s good fortune because it is also yours, honoring the stranger because you have also been a stranger before and know how it feels.

Awakening to the necessity of piercing the “little t’s and s’s” is one of the first steps along the journey of reconnecting with your spiritual and greater Self. Controlling your emotional states and the inner dialogue, finding out who you truly are within and living life in the Present and not the Past and the Future are all attainable goals, if and when you decide to embark upon that path. Going within to meet your Inner Child, seeking to heal her or him and send that part of yourself on a journey of re-connection with your Higher Self will lead to sustained and constant spiritual growth and a more joyous and connected experiential journey through the days of your life. This is the goal of an incarnation, at heart. Not money, not security, not happiness. These things are ephemeral and do not last. Only what is within and reflected without, lasts, and only what is within and reflected without, is Truth. Only what is beneath the inner-voice, beyond the thoughts, is Self.

Learn to recognize the Rules of Capitalization. Then live your life seeking to internalize them with eyes and hearts wide open to experience.

Nationalism and Spirituality: As above so below

This body I inhabit was born in the United States of America, In the late 1960s, to parents born but also raised in the big sky and red dirt country of the lower Panhandle region of West Texas. Our people are the descendents of enslaved Africans, galvanized by intimate, cultural interactions with both Europeans and Indigenous Americans, creating a singular and genetically consistent sub-racial/ethnic population identified as African-American. My own specific indoctrination into American culture is as a member of the generational cohort designated Gen-X, the child of an Air Force Veteran, being raised across the country and the world surrounded by the trappings of militarism and nationalism in a concentrated and volatile format. Being thusly sired, it was no stretch for me to enter the Army myself in the late 1980s culiminating in the First Gulf War-Desert Storm in 1991, whereupon the completion of my tour of duty found me more than ready to resume the formal aspect of my educational career, which I came to the end of 15 years later. It was only then that I formally embarked in a more concentrated manner upon the individualized spiritual journey that, earlier on, had characterized my life as a parallel thread of interest, but that has, over time, come to define the middle years of my life as the primary focus of my personal endeavors.

For most of my life, questions of religion and spirituality were answered within the confines of the Baptist and non-denominational Protestant Christian churches, where the perceived and affected africanisms, remnants of the continental genetic inheritance of an enslaved peoples familarized me with the intimate spiritual nature of African-descended folk, including such storied psychic capabilities as speaking in tongues(glossolalia), getting the spirit(possession), and the inherent and undeniable power of souls in synch expressing God-consciousness through the invocation of The Word put to music and the pounding, throbbing rhythms of the beat, either by drum, feet or both. The power of raw emotionality, the ability to leave the body and experience reality as Other than ordinary – as expressed equally in the synthetic religions of Santeria and Vodun – a cultural as well as a racial inheritance of the Middle Passage, known to Africanists the world across as the Maafa.

 The contradictory nature of spirituality and nationalism confront all spiritual seekers at some point of their personal evolution. And yet, our specific circumstances, our dharmic inheritance as it were, serves a purpose in the unfolding of our spiritual destinies as nationless Citizens of the World. Coming to grips with one’s Past and integrating it with one’s Present is a key component in the journey towards Transcendence of the material plane of existence, which can mean many things to many people. For me, personally, Bush’s War on Terror and Obama’s War on Liberty aftermath has left me struggling, caught within the grips of an extreme case of cognitive dissonance as my training and upbringing as a member of the American Warrior Class(AWC) surges within my mind. Memories of soldiering, the endless repetitions of the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegience and Star Spangled Banner during my early years combine with the direct military indoctrination of my young adulthood and the subsequent, rough cameraderie of soldiers, as well as the life and loves that have formed an indeliable impression upon me in the Past have made me the man that I am in the Present. I would not be who I am now, if it were not for who I was then.

When I was stationed in Germany during the late 80s and early 90s we used to call the United States the World. When someone’s tour of duty ended, they were headed back to the World. For us, everything that we could ever want was back home in the States, the World. I rather expect that soldiers, wherever they are stationed, continue to do so. In fact, I have seen movies of Vietnam where this convention is honored, and it signifies the way that soldiers think of the United States, of home, even though, technically speaking, their deployment across the planet might more accurately be considered an experience of the World. Sentimentality knows no bounds of logic or experience, it seems.

The expression of this dichotomous viewpoint, the struggle between the World and one’s current circumstances and understandings is the stuff of spiritual elevation. In each moment, it is possible for us to let goof the Past, to die to who we were in order to become who we are meant to be. As an example, it is as if there were a grand template of Rahkyt out there somewhere, a vision of perfection and peace whereby I realize my inherent probabilities, manifest at the highest level of Being, the possibilities of my spirit and my soul. A similar vision exists for all of us, regardless of our stations in life, or our individual experiences, because we are all One, connected at every level of interaction, our actions and reactions being determined by the chaotic effects of stimuli too many and diverse to specify ranging from an vast number of options spanning both space and time, creating matrices of chance and probability that result in our individualized Destinies, sending us upon life-journeys of perfection and peace, despite the emotional highs and lows of illusory materialism that distract us from what is really going on, beneath the surface drama of life and its attendent trials and tribulations.

And yet, this illusory materialism is the very stuff of life, isn’t it. It is the daily grind, the emotional relationships we share the history, and the cultural and social milieu that we inhabit forms the majority proportion of our perception, given our tendency as socially conditioned Westerners to elevate the external, material conditions of our shared realities over the internal, spiritual conditions of that selfsame reality. Which brings me back to Nationalism.

It almost goes without saying that the connection of body and mind, and some aspects of the spirit, to the collective of humanity is of necessity a mandatory expression of Oneness and that Nationalism, even considering all of its ills, is reflective of this subconscious desire of disparate groups of humanity to express this reality, given their shared ethnic and cultural affiliations. Group-mind, mob behavior, both have an aspect of shared consciousness at the level of the human sub-conscious, binding individuals together in ways that are scientifically documented and verifiable through varied methods utilized by the mass media, corporations and governments in order to direct and control populations.

So on the individual level, for those of us seeking elevation and death to the Self, it become incumbent upon us to examine all of our previously unexamined habits and beliefs in order to determine what istrue and real in our lives, what is Ego and what is Soul, and sublimate our tendencies toward the ease of groupthink accordingly. For me, personally, the heartache and pain of American soldiers fighting and dying on foreign soil is a visceral experience to me because I feel them on an individual level, know what they are going through to an extent and recognize what it took and takes for them to live the lives that they have chosen.

On the other hand, because of my empathic abilities and somewhat specialized, geographic knowedge I can feel and intuit the pain of those in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya, as they are subjugated to a foreign power, Palestinians and Israelis fighting for their lives and land, Iranians, Egyptians, Syrians and Kurdistanis seeking to make sense out of the shifting, political sands. All of these groups change, evolve, merging and interacting on a super-personal level as collective, psychic entities embroiled upon multiple levels of interaction, sending tendrils of potentiality out into the aether which respond to the collective intent and desire of nations and people across the globe, all connected within the miasma of Gaia’s aetheric emanations, collectively, as macro-level expressions of the diversity of lifeforms within our own bodies, working and living together as individuals and organizations for the evolution of the whole.

This body I inhabit is formed of Stardust born of Earth, third planetary body from Sol, one solar system among many clustered within the Milky Way galaxy, reflecting the Infinite Array, expressive of the expansive nature of both matter and consciousness and the continuing evolution of the multiverse, transcending time and space within the remorseless imperative of the evolutionary process occuring within the soul of each moment, born anew with each thought and subsequent action at every level of Creation Become. My experiences and genetic programming, explicit towards the manifestation of my own personal destiny as a microcosm of our shared, collective destiny, the fulfillment of an imperative born far beyond my, or our, capacity to conceive of in its awesome and terrifying immensity.

Challenging the Holiday Blues

This time of year is often one that is very difficult for people, for many different reasons. For me personally, it is the first Christmas that I am not spending with 3 of my children. For other people, this season may remind them of Christmases with their family members passed on or estranged, for whatever reason. It may remind people of failed relationships, or terrible events or of personal scars attained during the outer and inner growth processes. The difficulty of the season is in all actuality a challenge to us each to go within in order to process the emotions that it gives rise to. We are presented with an opportunity to examine our inner emotional baggage and either continue to glorify it by giving it power over our lives or we can process and integrate it, thereby refusing to empower it to the extent that it causes us emotional pain.

It is a difficult proposition no matter our chosen response. For me, missing my children is a constant. The pain of their daily absence in my life has not lessened since it occurred. Time and distance has a way of placing this odd sheen of blurred recollection between us and our memories, but our hearts can’t see in the same way and pain has a way of refreshing itself. We re-create trauma in our lives by dwelling on it, we define ourselves by our pain, we claim it and cherish it, making it an integral part of our self expression. Whether or not that is the correct way to deal with it, it is often a very human way to do so that transcends culture or ethnicity to become a part of the human condition that afflicts us all and that anyone can resonate to, anywhere in the world.

Remembering past injustices by friends or family members, Christmases spent in conflict or in love, holiday seasons of deprivation or of excess, the rise and fall, the ebb and flow of emotionalism as those feelings we felt then come back to haunt us now, contextualizing the moment, taking us out of the Now and back into the Past, effectively re-creating the emotional conditions of yesteryear in the crucible of the present.

It is always a choice.

A choice that can be made in each instance. A choice that we often do not recognize unless it is pointed out to us in some fashion. That each thought is a choice. That each action is a choice. That the future is totally up to us and is a result of all of the choices that we will ever make.

Exiting our memories and entering the present moment can lead to an encounter with fear as the option of releasing our past confronts us. Does letting go mean that I love any less? Does moving on mean that I am heartless? Does releasing memories mean that they are no longer important? Does embracing the Now mean that the past is meaningless?

Releasing the emotional detritus of the past effectively allows us to embrace the present moment fully, perhaps for the first time. Consciously living in the Now, not allowing the regrets of the past to intervene and ruin it creates new flows of memory, new associations, new neural networks created by neurons flowing along new pathways, creating new connections as synapses fire in different ways, allowing us to think in totally new patterns. It is possible for people to change their ways if they allow themselves to, if they, we, actively engage ourselves in the challenge of living each moment anew, without applying the values and conclusions of the past to current events and people, by allowing the Now to become new, to effectively choose a sort of Innocence as an expression o f a new commitment to life and to possibility.

Allowing the magic to re-enter into one’s life, much as Scrooge did in that old classic Christmas tale. When confronted with the inevitability of mortality we become apprised of the reality that we are not promised tomorrow and what we do with today is the most important decision that we can make. If we choose to make today all about yesterday then we engage in the very definition of insanity, by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we choose to always be the same, then we are choosing the same results. We cannot expect our lives, our inner selves, our emotional bodies, to change, if we do not manage that change consciously ourselves, committing to the idea of living our lives and experiencing each day to the fullest.

Our love is eternal. Just because we have lost our loved ones in the Now, it does not mean that they have left us forever. Just because we are not with the ones we love right now, it does not mean we will never be with them again. Just because we are estranged now, it does not mean we will be estranged forever and just because we are hurting today, it does not mean we have to hurt tomorrow. It is our choice. The future is an open book. We write it with each decision that we undertake. Our intention is paramount. If we live with love, then love is our expression and can be felt by those whom we share it with, whether they are present with us or distant. We are entangled, we are One, as all of Creation is an expression of a Divine Thought made manifest and animated with individual consciousness, Awareness becoming Aware of, and Loving, its Self.

Enjoy the Season, enjoy the Now. Choosing to live, is choosing to Love. Choosing to Love is the fullest expression of Life Itself.

Happy Holidays to One and All, however you may express it.

Negativity: Empowering Armageddon

Does anybody know anyone who is just so negative in their outlook that whenever they talk to you, either it’s about nothing, or it’s about something that’s happened to them? They complain about everything all the time, even when good things happen, or they’re afraid to try things because of the negative things that may happen as a result?

It seems like these people see the ugly side of everything and they never stop to appreciate the positive aspects of life, or, whenever the seem to do so, it’s only because they’re practically forced to do so by the sheer insistence and presence of people around them who are, in that moment, enjoying life and basically infecting the environment with a positive charge.

What do you do when a person like this is in your life? When you have a friend who has a friend who is like this, causing your friend to come to you complaining all the time? Or, when you have a friend who is like this and their energy-sucking capabilities just leave you drained? Or, Heaven forbid, your husband, wife, significant other, boyfriend or girlfriend is like this and you’ve endured the energy drain for days, weeks, months, years or maybe even decades?

How does it affect you? What can you do about it? The first thing that has to be done is to recognize these people, which seems to be the easiest part, right?  I mean, who doesn’t recognize it when someone is moaning, whining and complaining all the time and always has something negative to say? It should be obvious, shouldn’t it?

Well, what seems obvious isn’t always so. Because many times, we don’t recognize these individuals at first because, guess what, we’re complaining all the time and being negative with them, and we are also the type of person who drain others of their energy with our continual dramas and problems with other people, situations and daily life! We’re the ones who aren’t satisfied with our lives, who don’t like our mates, who hate our jobs, who are pissed at the kids all the time, who think our friends are really our enemies and who, in the final analysis, really hate ourselves.

That’s weird, huh, turning the mirror back upon one’s Self that way, but think about it. We only draw the type of energy into our lives that reflects some aspect of ourselves. The Sages say that the things we hate most about other people are the things that we hate most about ourselves, which is why they also say that there’s a thin line between Love and Hate. Because Self-Love and Self-Hate are both forms of introspection, one having to do with Positivity and the other with Negativity, Right?

Wrong. We all are One. Nothing is External, All is Internal, which really just consolidates the above understanding and makes what’s going on outside of yourself an internal, personal issue, rather than an external, impersonal issue.

Are you ready and willing to take responsibility for the Middle East Crisis? How about World Hunger? What about murder and rape, child abuse and incest, deforestation and the raping of the natural world? The holes in the ozone layer, global warming, animal cruelty and unchecked consumption of material goods, all of this, above and beyond which to include the multivariate problems and perversions that make up the human tapestry and exist alongside the beauty and goodness of giving, of sharing, of loving and being, of existence and appreciation of life?

And what does any of this have to do with that negative person in your life?

I sometimes find myself with that person and listening, nodding agreement about some point about the world situation, a person we might know in common who is just scandalous, some betrayal or other in someone else’s life, or a bad experience with a mechanic. But by listening, participating and by agreeing with all of these examples of the trials that life brings us, we are agreeing subconsciously that the negative aspects of life are worthy of being elevated to the point of extended conversational manifestation, which really means that we are giving them power. By concentrating on the negative, we empower the negative.

Is it coming clear, now? What one has to do with the other? As above, so below.

By the media concentrating for 24 Hours a day (CNN, FOX News, MSNBC) on the many world Crises, it empowers them, which then gains a psychic and emotional strength that encompasses and influences our shared collective unconscious, infecting the dreams and desires of the entire world’s population with this singular vision of destruction and mayhem.

By participating in corporate culture, which is invested in and endorsed by millions across the “Civilized World” (through 401K plans, Retirement and other investment opportunities) we are empowering these corporations to act in our interests, to preserve the status quo and continue the neo-liberal deprivations which have resulted in the rich continuing to get richer and the poor continuing to fight for the last dregs, festering at the bottom of a toxic, plastic barrel discarded in the farthest, dirtiest dumpsite from western civilization that you could ever imagine or even reach.

By supporting the system, engaging in the system, we keep the system going, we feed it, the fear that we inject into it through our participation keeps it afloat. It keeps the stock market fluctuating, it keeps the corporations from sinking, it keeps the politicians employed, it keeps the unfair legal system, the thug police, the office politics constant and steady external negativities that seem real but that are really illusory, holograms of our shared, collective reality.

We do so – those of us who can afford to (and many of us who can’t that wish we could are equally culpable) - in the name of security; in the name of providing for ourselves and our children; in the name of providing for the future. I wonder, sometimes, what future that is, and if it is a future worth living in. All of these things are really different aspects of fear. Fear that we see in others, who we project our fear onto and who reflect it back into our faces. It is said, that which we hate most about others is that which we hate most about ourselves.

We all are One. So that negativity that we cultivate when we engage with negative individuals is a negativity that is within us, just as it is within them. We must always look to Self before we look to others to blame or castigate, even though it feels good to do so.

When I began writing this article, I was fully intending upon prescribe a course of action to follow when encountering such individuals, because I have one or two in my life that just drain me so much; when I’m around them it feels like, the more energy that is depleted from me, the stronger, the louder and the more strident their conversation gets! This energy depletion effect is so powerful, so real, that you get tired and kind of depressed just thinking about a time recently when it has happened to you, don’t you? I do.

But the writing led me here, instead, right back to myself and my own issues, the mirror held up, my own two baby browns staring right back at me. Go figure.

Many texts speak of the energy-siphoning phenomena and the different types of people whom one encounters during the course of one’s day, week, month, year or lifetime. Since it is established that people do indeed act as psychic or emotional vampires and prey upon each other for their own psychic/emotional energy needs, understanding this fact and how it manifests in our lives is a defensive strategy that we all need to implement just to get through the days of our lives with peace of mind and the ability to concentrate on our individual paths. There are very specific strategies that one can employ in order to minimize the effect these people have on you, all of them in some way concerned with giving, sending or sharing Love with these people in order to offset the enmity and fear with which they engage the world.

I fully concur with these strategies, with only the added caveat that it takes continual practice to be able to retain love in one’s own heart especially when dealing with these people in the moment and remembering, always, that we brought them into our spheres of influence in the first place, so there was something about them or in them that we resonated to and liked. If we brought them into our lives because we were complaining about a specific issue or thing at some point and they were on about that too - and our entire relationship thereafter was built upon a shared disdain and distrust of the world - then it is incumbent upon us to remove those individuals from our lives, if we have grown to the point where we are attempting to remove the negative processes within ourselves, first.

Nobody likes a hypocrite.  Or anybody who is holier than thou. Because it eventually becomes transparent, doesn’t it?

People who claim to be Saints, cast judgment upon others and who seem to be oh, so very elevated spiritually, eventually trip and fall, cursing and revealing their fragile humanity to their amused and vindictive oh, so human audiences. False Prophets, Know-It-All Pundits, Talking Heads, That Kid Down the Hall, your Best Friend, Next Door Neighbor, you name them - any and all of them, or us, as the case may be - the business of self-transformation is a lifelong processthat requires years of introspection, meditation, prayer and attendance to one’s own thought-processes and actions, as well as an ever-increasing understanding of humanity, the world around us and the worlds beyond us.

Individuals who have reached this stage of transpersonal development virtually shine, and, if you are in their presence, it is immediately apparent that they are not your average everyday homeboy or girl. Even online, you can tell the difference, in the modes of writing or talking, an internal consistency of philosophical or spiritual knowledge that confirms Direct Experience of the Divine, of Gnosis. It cannot be faked for long.

So. The next time you find yourself trapped in an elevator with that person, you know the one I’m talking about, instead of lashing out at them, take a look within yourself and try to figure outwhy this person thinks that they can just come to you and jack your energy all willy nilly, and then, deal with those parts of yourself that have previously bought into that mindset and gossiping, negative conversational mode. If you’re at a place mentally and emotionally where you can do so, send them an earnest wish for happiness and peace the next time you sit down in meditation or kneel in prayer.

While watching the news or reading political blogs or sites, cultivate a sense of peace and positivity regarding the outcome of the many wars and rumors of wars, the insistence upon End Time beliefs and World Changes being, in recent weeks, subjects of increasing media focus. When I watch CNN, or MSNBC and see a panel seriously talking about the Biblical Armageddon or 2012, I wonder what is going on and who gave them permission to do so, and whose material, worldly agenda does it serve? Who is it that believes that they know the day and the hour?

Beyond the political and economic ramifications of that apparent fear-mongering, it is increasingly obvious to all that the world we live in is, indeed, changing, perhaps cataclysmically. Through that change, whenever and however it occurs, all we are truly responsible for is ourselves and the state of our individual souls.

We can only change the world by changing ourselves. But we can only change ourselves by changing our worlds.  In this view, then, the Realization of Oneness is the key to everything. Does that sound crazy to y’all?

The Future-Past Manifest: Honoring the genetic cellular database

Who we are individually is the question at the core of all paths leading toward spiritual growth. The Oracle at Delphi in ancient Greece had written above its main portal a simple dictate: Know Thyself. The encouragement implied by this statement is among the deepest truths yet known to human-kind. Whether it be Kemetian Sages, African traditionalists, Gnostics of the Judaic, Christian or Islamic persuasion, Wiccan adherents, Hindu or Buddhist practitioners, knowledge of Self has always been considered to be the key to Enlightenment.

But what the Self is has been a contentious topic in philosophy, psychology and religion. Determinations of differentiation between the ego and the Self have resulted in the delineation of different forms of consciousness residing within one body. Spiritual traditions the world across have discovered and explored the causal, astral and higher forms of consciousness that we hold in common despite where we come from. Psychologists have come to accept the existence of an ego, an id, super-id and a collective unconscious.  The higher aspects of spiritual being-ness comprise the Self, while the lower aspects of material being-ness comprise the self. All of these understandings combine in ascending order to comprise a holistic unity of consciousness with varying degrees of accessibility by the normal, waking or egoistic construct that we call our personality.

Whether we should give more attention to some deity outside of ourselves has been the oppositional yet concurrent thread running through the historical record of human spiritual aspiration. Cultures around the world are at their cores primeval expressions of consciousness interacting in matter with the world. Environmental conditions in different climate regions play a role in determining the types of religious structures that you find. Ethnic religions are generally unique and spatially distinct, while Universal religions span the globe. Projecting consciousness within upon the world without results in the formulation of nature deities that live in streams, in forests, in mountains, in the skies and below the ground. Explanations about what happens after death sooth the predominant fear that threatens ever. As evolution of the worldly cycles continue on in ever-repeating spirals of matter progressing through time, so birth, death and rebirth become constant themes in human societies.

The evolution of culture, then, is an expression of both collective and individual interaction and intention imposed upon a sub-stratum of fundamental reality that is virtually inaccessible by egoistic perception. Because of the intense conditioning that proceeds from birth onward by family, friends and society, each individual is indoctrinated into how the world should be seen and defined. These definitions then make up the totality of a person’s perception of the world.

Because of the differences in cultural evolution across the world, people from different geographic locations perceive the world in sometimes subtly and sometimes grossly different ways. Spiritual ideals held in common across the human family express themselves according to the importance applied to them by individual cultures. For Hindus, reincarnation occurs as a form of spiritual evolution within the context of a hierarchical caste system based upon class and race. For Africans, reincarnation occurs as a form of spiritual evolution within the context of immediate and extended family.

Genetics and spirituality are contentious topics when examined alone. When taken together, their potential to cause trouble, predictably, doubles. The drive of the Nazi Third Reich was more than a xenophobic expression of nationalism, it was a spiritual movement designed to crown a “Master Race”, enthroned upon the bones of the sub-human masses. The world-wide expansion of Christianity from Europe into the Americas and Africa was driven in large part by a European zeitgeist of pre-supposed racial and cultural superiority. Smaller, less universal religions that people are born into such as Hinduism and Judaism are notoriously ethnocentric and strict in their determination of who is righteous and who is not. And yet, despite the inherent dangers of mixing genetics and spirituality, the unified nature of reality demands some acknowledgement of the fundamental interrelationship of all phenomena as being integrally intertwined.

There is only one human race. There are many ethnicities that span the gamut in varieties of skin color, sizes, shapes and temperaments. No individual is bound to stereotypical behavior because each possesses free will and is responsible for his or her own outcomes. This truth cannot be overstated. We are souls on a human journey.

Religion and spirituality as expressions of collective ethical aspiration agree in the assignation of responsibility to the individual. Each person must achieve his or her own spiritual advancement primarily through behavior-change. Behavior-change can proceed either from the adherence to group norms, or from a shift in intention and thought on the part of the individual. By adhering to group norms, an individual does not have to change his or her thought processes. She or he only has to act the way others act in order to conform. By shifting intention and thought, by contrast, a person’s behavior automatically changes to reflect their new mental state. The Self seeks to shift intention and thought, approaching the highest spiritual expression, while self seeks the gratification of ego and the needs of the reptilian brain, which are imminently material and worldly in nature and have to do with fear and security. The Self which seeks spiritual attainment is individualized and responsible to higher principles and the evolution of the soul, while the self which seeks security and comfort is the personal manifestation of group norms and irrevocably tied to the world.

Conforming to group norms is how stereotypes are created and evolve. Coming into the American zeitgeist through the southern states and slavery, Blacks in America of necessity were limited to certain types of cheap and abundant food sources, chicken and watermelon being among these. Individually, people have varied likes and dislikes and yet because of their group-identification, they may be stereotyped as to these personal choices to a greater or lesser degree. The stereotype of Asians as being inscrutable may have more to do with an erroneous perception based upon both cultural and physiological differences between Asians and Caucasians, primarily having to do with less demonstrative cultures and the epicanthic fold. These superficial determinations are primarily material and irrelevant. Of greater import is the recognition of the continuation of genetic streams of karmic responsibility at the personal and collective level.

Given the difficulty in determining truth from falsehood when considering the heavily manipulated historical record of the human family, it serves little purpose to speculate as to the nature of original causation, or, who did what to who first, when and why. All that is necessary is to look at the world as it currently exists, the position of different peoples and cultures around the world and the nature of immediate, potential future time-lines. The Future-Past Manifest is an inexorable machination of Divine will as expressed materially through time and across space, as each intention, thought and action recorded in the collective unconscious seeks its resolution. What has been birthed what is and what is will form what is to be. The ideal of karma – or, reaping the whirlwind in the Judeo-Christian vernacular – serves well as an expression of the natural law declaring the outcome of equal and opposite actions and reactions.

Those who conform to group norms accept culpability in group behavior. The karmic destiny of their chosen group is an acceptable one. The safety and comfort the self experiences by being a part of a larger group outweighs questions of morality and karmic debt. On the other hand, deviating from group norms and shifting intention and thought to reflect a more individuated and soul-based expression of Self as opposed to self releases individuals from the group. Of course, there are groups within groups, as individuals conform to greater or lesser degrees, all existing within one, super-group that is comprised of the entirety of the human, earth-bound family.

For the individual, recapitulating one’s life – going through the memory banks and seeking clarity regarding conformity or non-conformity to the highest potentiality of each experience – results in a clear understanding of the original question pertaining to who we are. From there, taking a sober accounting of our present circumstances, our relationships, jobs, family, our states of mind, desires and needs, reveals the current constellation of our perceived responsibilities as well as the potential path forward. Partaking of the norms of our chosen groups links us to those groups in simple and complex ways: from the neighborhoods that we live in to the entertainments that we enjoy, from the people we vote for to the unspoken prejudices we share with friends, all of these choices bind us in time and space to other people and groups and to genetic and cultural ways of being-ness that are, in truth, illusory and digressive from the lesser-traveled paths of individuated spiritual attainment.

For many, being bound to the genetic and social groups of our primary life-experiences is a satisfactory outcome. That choice is honorably made by the majority of those who follow the wide highway of material and spiritual evolution, as the traffic is heavy, the destination ponderous, ritualistic and seemingly irresistible. Following the Self’s often-subtle encouragement to explore for ourselves, to seek out a different way, to look for that which lies beyond the simple and stereotypical facade, is a quiet choice, one often drowned out by the boisterous sub-vocal exhortations of the self and the external imperatives of the group.

Whatever the path we each choose, individually, it is the correct choice. The gene code is the expression of our ancestral lineages, up the wending path of the evolutionary ladder, to the present day. Each ancestor contributed fundamentally to who each of us is, right this moment. Each of them is still with us, hidden within the dna spirals of our body, right this moment. Our genetic codes, as an expression of life’s fundamental imperative to seek the highest potential outcome of each individual path, require us to honor Creation by our very presence and soundness of mind and body, which is all the encouragement needed for us to manifest all of who we are in each moment of our lives. We are each where we are supposed to be, no soul is better than another, no path is better than the other, just different.

To know thyself is a worthy goal, promising bounties beyond conception, experiences beyond the mundane. To seek to manifest the sublime aspects of spiritual attainment by going within to find the knowledge of Self is to seek the path less traveled, winding up steep paths into the light-enhanced heights of awareness and potentiality, seeking the unity of the material and the spiritual, beyond desire, pain or need. Choose well.