The Power of Words

Etymology: the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

It is very important that we use words precisely. Because words have meaning. But what is interesting about those meanings, is that words retain their original meaning, no matter what the new context or definition is. I’ll use a very difficult example, just to show the power of words and how the understood meaning can change over time, but how the original meaning sometimes subtly and sometimes grossly can influence the new meaning.

Nigger –> English –> Currently a derogatory or celebratory term used to either denigrate or compliment
Negro –> English –> Member of a black-skinned race of Africa
Negro –> Spanish, Portugese –> Black (as above)
Niger/Nigrum –> Latin –> Black, dark, sable, dusky, gloomy, unlucky, bad, wicked
Niger –> Ibo (W. African language) –> King; Niger-ia (also, N-ga) –> Queen; N-ger-s –> the Goddess Neggur (Hathor); Nugarmatta –> people of the Ghana (W. African) Empire
Naga –> Sanskrit –> Serpent deities in Hinduism and Buddhism; Aboriginal peoples of various Southeast Asian origins
N-g’r/Net-ger/Neter –> Egyptian –> God, gods and goddesses

In the context of Metaphysics, the words we choose to use to express ourselves are often indicative of where our level of understanding currently is. We are all ignorant, period. Lots of stuff we don’t know. Life is a learning process and we are Works in progress. Because English has loan words from many language, the difficulty in knowing the origins of all of the words we use is self-evident. But since words have power, and we often lend personal power to the terms we use through the channeling of our own emotional/pain bodies in the phrases, sentences and postings that we add to the conversations we engage in, the spells we create for and against each other are very clear to those intimately familiar with words and with casting.

Quantum biology supports the notion of entanglement through interaction, minds intertwining, interwoven and interacting. We are, effectively, reaching into others when we speak or write. When we read, we are bringing others into ourselves. As we consider ideas expressed, we are co-creating a current and shared understanding of a form of reality that is specific to the spells we are co-casting, to the Great Work of Alchemy, personal transformation in the spiritual sense.

The sovereignty movement has a correct understanding of the power of words. The Elite have a correct understanding of the power of words. Meta-physicians have a correct understanding of the power of words. Words spoken begin as discursiveness within the brain, the little voice speaking within, for some, a constant chatter, for others who have worked on it utilizing meditative techniques – and who have, perhaps, experienced Kensho/Satori/Enlightenment/Grace events – that discursiveness has been stilled to a greater or lesser degree, and so the words they speak are supremely effective to the extent that they always say exactly what they mean. No more and no less.

Words can work magic upon us, cast spells, when you read certain people’s writing, the precise, formulaic expression reads like a mathematical equation. When you read other people’s writing, it reads more like a stream-of-consciousness ramble. Neither of which is good or bad, they just are, but much of the bickering that we fall prey to comes down to either an incorrect reading of the words and a correct reading of the intent behind the words or the correct reading of the words but an incorrect reading of the intent behind the words. The key word in the preceding sentence is intent, which is important. That is where the power lies that imbues the words with energy.

If we are seeking to build something together, to create, to understand and move higher, together, then the intent will be clear and will infuse all conversations begun and carried out in this vein with a resonant vibratory frequency that will attract the kind of energy that contributes to individual and collective spiritual growth.

And vice versa. Being careful with our words should just be par the course. Understanding what we are saying and really meaning when we share is not only considerate of others but shows a strong sense of self-respect. The emotional/pain body – which is built and reinforced over a lifetime of experience interpreted through chemical and hormonal bodily programming – does indeed just get in the way. Clear communication is paramount, especially when speaking on topics of the utmost importance.

 

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.

Directed Consciousness: The resonation of material expression

Right now, everything is fine. Peace pulsates at the center. The radiance of calm and well-being exudes an aura of golden stillness.

This is not so because life is perfect. It is not because things are either good or bad. The reason has nothing to do with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, the trials and tribulations of life. The reason has to do only with the fact that living in the Now creates a mental and spiritual space of presence and awareness. It is the total concentration of attention on the Present. It is the living consciousness of complete awareness.

This is not to say that engaging memory or considerations of the future do not occur. Of course they must, as the processes of living require them in order to navigate life and the world. As an example of directed consciousness, the recapitulation process is a mandatory practice in the resolution of a lifetime. This is also not to say that the emotions are stilled immediately, as they are connected to memory and considerations of the future and often arise spontaneously as the mental imagery and habitual sub-vocal discursiveness engage patterns of chemical release in the form of neuro-peptides cascading from the hypothalamus into the cells of the body, resulting in the bodily expression of mental stimuli. But as the habit of living in the Now evolves and deepens, the neural network begins to reflect the mental changes and the synaptic connection between axons and dendrites that form the network associations we call personality and the memory-based, experiential triggers and self-regulating emotional patterns, resulting in a qualitative rarification process that streamlines the physical structure of the mind in response to the new pattern of the thought processes.

The personal experience of this phenomenon may seem curious and improbable when compared to the typical pattern of emotional addiction and mental chatter that typifies the normative lived experience. But it is the natural evolution of directed consciousness and steady insistence upon mental and emotional control. The ability to direct consciousness and regulate attention is concentration. Everyone does it to a certain extent. Through the practice of physical and mental tasks that develop concentration mind control is facilitated. Art, music, sports and academics all require the development of the concentrative faculties in order to excel in these practices. Since most people have participated in any one of these exercises the states of presence and awareness that often accompany their successful and skilled expression may be somewhat familiar. The reality of living in a constant state of presence and awareness is the reality of living in the Zone.

No matter the state of mind, emotion or body, every moment is perfect. Sometimes it takes a conscious effort to realize this. Ceasing the constant mental chatter to access the infinite space of presence and awareness that underlies all and looking at situations and the world through eyes bright with the epiphanic wonder of directed consciousness reminds the limited personality construct that our default perceptive modalities are only a pale rendition of what is possible.

In the Now regrets fall away into oblivion, as do worries and fears. It becomes readily apparent that such are the illusions of imaginative dwelling, fed by the emotional maelstrom that becomes the personality construct’s default mind-state due to the habitual avoidance of the present moment. Societal forces are in large part responsible for the individual’s preoccupation with the external reality to the detriment of the internal reality. Societal norms and pressure from kinship and peer groups enforce conformity and adherence to patterns of behavior deviating only minimally from standard medians of expressive measurement.

Making a Change: The personal choice to combat ignorance

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. ~George Orwell

There is no expiration date for ignorance. As the expression of a manifest desire not to know, ignorance stands as one of the most confounding illnesses that the Awakened have to deal with during this  time of intense energetic shifting and the manifestation of a new world-wide paradigm.

Ignorance is expressed at the individual level and at the collective level. Ignorance is a part of many personal choices in how to live a life. Whether to become apprised of a certain body of knowledge, let’s say, politics. Or, economics. Or even culture. Stubbornly refusing to learn about both sides of any political argument or how money is created or even how to get along with a neighbor of a different religion.

Ingrained belief systems are often to blame. Being raised in environments where diversity is low or not growing up within an environment where life-long learning is emphasized. Sometimes, ignorance is an expression of a perception of superiority. The belief that one’s own understanding and perception of the world is so right that everyone else’s must be wrong and, therefore, unworthy of the attempt at understanding.

Ignorance is also unavoidable. It is inevitable that every single person is ignorant about something, since it is not possible to know everything about everything. Since some amount of ignorance is unavoidable, the state of humility is an excellent space from which to relate to the world. Understanding that our ability to be apprised of all of the variables that comprise a situation is limited, so remaining open to new knowledge is the paramount perspective from which to view and interact with the world.

Being open to new information allows the brain to function at a higher capacity. The neural net can build new synapses, connecting old information to new, creating more complex networks that allow the individual to function beyond the abilities of those who rely upon old, static information and knowledge. Being open to new experiences allows an individual to grow in ways beyond their ability to predict or even to understand. While it is true that it is impossible to hide from life or to cover one’s head in sand and allow the winds of change to blow over with no personal effects, standing straight up and staring change in the eye is a much more preferable way to deal with the world and take charge of your perception of it.

Too many people are living under someone else’s ideas about what the world is, what it is about and why we are all here. Too many people don’t go out and find out for themselves, instead they rely upon the perceptions and opinions of others, which is fine, to an extent. If those opinions and perceptions are relied upon to the detriment of one’s individual initiative and if those opinions and perceptions form the basis of decision-making, becoming dependent upon another’s perspectives without being fully apprised of their intentions or the perspective in opposition to the one in question can represent the heights of ignorance and lead to dangerous and unwanted consequences.

Making the decision to become personally responsible for our own understanding of the world is making the decision to become a sovereign soul. Making the effort to understand both sides of any political argument, how the world in which we live works and why people different from you believe the way they do is making the decision to become an informed individual who is then qualified to make wise decisions in relation to the world around them. Learning how to navigate the informational highways in all of their personal and impersonal varieties contributes to the educational process as all of the institutional traps and dead-ends also become apparent for what they are.

The world is what it is, our perceptions of it do not necessarily match what’s really going on out there. The extent to which our understanding is limited is the extent to which we have relied upon external input or no input at all in navigating our lives. Living life on auto-pilot only works for a short time. If you encounter a bump or an air-pocket along the way it quickly becomes clear that course-correction is in order. To then return to auto-pilot is the height of ignorance. Unfortunately, that is what most people do. Follow the courses of action laid out by others, responding to emergencies and then returning to the previously unworkable course of action, washing, rinsing and then repeating, again and again and then wondering why life didn’t turn out the way you wanted it.

Take the chance to make a change. Become responsible for your perception of the world by finding things out for yourself instead of relying on others opinions. Go see for yourself. Step out of your comfort zone. Go talk to a Republican or Democrat, see why they think the way they do. Watch a movie that informs you about Modern Money Mechanics. Go talk to the Muslim or Jew or African-American down the street.

Combat ignorance with curiosity and reap the benefits of participating in your world instead of being carried along by it.

How Do You Sell Your Soul? Daily, and for cheap

What is wrong with living our lives?

Nothing. Everything is as it should be.

What can be the cost of living our lives?

Our souls.

What do you mean by that?

The choices we make in the course of living our lives determine what happens after our lives are done.

Being comfortable in life is one of the primary goals society programs into us as citizens of different countries. Despite the geographic differences and distances, Western culture as a whole displays remarkable similitude in how ideofacts and sociofacts are ingrained within populations. To be successful in any of the Western cultures, a modicrum of capitalistic ideology and consumer-oriented methodology must be inculcated by groups, families and individuals. To belong and to epitomize the expression of said culture, the actual, material expression of lifetime success is a relative degree of affluence as measured by the modernization memes that permeate Eurocentric society and those sycophant socieities serving as peripheral outposts of raw material and low-wage earner extraction.

The daily choice of complying with the demands of modern society result in the accumulation of karmic debt as a result. Because we choose to work, we accept the ramifications of what it means to do that work. If I am a police officer, then I accept the consequences of protecting the property of the rich. If I am an Insurance salesman, I accept the consequences of propping up a system built upon the enslavement of human beings. If I am a soldier, I accept the consequences of being involved in corporate mercenary adventurism. If I work at a fast food restaurant, then I accept the consequences of feeding customers food that not only is not good for them but actually helps to kill them.

Society is successful because of the complicity of ordinary human beings. Because we need jobs, because we have to pay our bills, because we have to drive our cars, because we have to live, we accept the consequences of contributing to the continuation of the vast life-draining machinery that we call modern Western society. We accept our complicity in it continuance often not even wanting to know the details of that agreement. We don’t want to know the depths of the crimes we are engaged in by association and by active work. We would rather take our paychecks and spend them on big-screen televisions, be able to go out to nice restaurants with our friends on the weekend and imbibe in more death-dealing food, drugs and alcohol in order to drown ourselves in oblivion as a result of not wanting to face up to the consequences of our lifestyles and what those lifestyles actually support.

It is painful to look at the path of a lifetime and determine that you are not on the side of the good guys. If you come to realize it, you may ask the universe, but what else could I have done? What other choices did I have? And the answers to those questions might have shaken you to your very core. Or given rise to a visceral fear that the loss of material security must result in.

In these days and times of political and social unrest, of economic insecurity and planetary shifts, nothing is certain. No life, no relationship, no job, no aspect of the natural world currently exists in a state of equilibrium, all is in flux. This flux is resulting in the gradual coalescence of a new paradigm of interrelation that must of necessity result in a more sustainable global society, a society based upon principles of egalitarianism rather than unrestrained capitalism and economic privation.

Despite the fact that everything as it currently exists is as it should be, that does not mean that there is not room for change. Since change on a global level must start with change on a personal level it is incumbent upon all who desire to live a conscious life in support of sustainable interrelationships with each other and the world, all attempts at shifting the paradigmatic focus must start within us each. Each one of us must go within and find out what it is that we are made of. In order to do that, we must determine, first, what our major illusions are, what our fears are, what is it in our lives that is holding us back from being all that we can be?

What is holding you back?

What do you fear?

What is it in your life that you absolutely cannot afford to lose?

What is it that causes you to compromise all of your vaunted ideals and accept less than you deserve?

Asking these questions – actually realizing that these questions need to be asked – is one of the first steps to choosing to awaken to some of the deeper realities of life. Of accepting the fact that the way things have been is not the way things should be and that a change is in order. Accepting your compliance with the system and that you are indeed an agent of the system as long as you work for and through the system to support the global hierarchy of dominance and control is a big step in figuring out how to create a lifestyle of non-compliance and opposition to the machine.

That opposition does not have to be violent. In fact, non-compliance is one of the best and most effective ways to isolate systemic institutions and marginalize them to the extent that new, people-centered and sustainable institutions arise to serve the needs of a humanity more concerned with living life instead of accumulating capital and material goods. Living life in support of life, in support of animal rights, in support of human rights, in support of the earth’s rights beyond the capacity of formal institutions based upon capitalistic redistribution of wealth that actually serves to continue the concentration of wealth among the Haves rather than increase its availability to the so-called Have-nots. Going beyond money to reclaim a basic goodness and sense of shared destiny and circumstance that binds us all together as a whole – rather than continue giving power to the separation memes dividing us into classist, ethnic and individual parts – is the only way to make sense of any future conceptualization of life in this world. Anything less can only be a continuation of what is already occurring.

And the way life is being lived right now – or dreamed of being lived right now – by way too many is not what life is supposed to be about. Making money. Being rich. Being famous. People sell their souls on the daily and watch themselves, helplessly, as their spark for life lessens, as their bitterness grows, as their bodies age and their minds ossify in regret and lost hope. And they wonder what happened and when, knowing all the while exactly what happened and when they made the choice to conform to the life presented them and to give up their dreams for a sense of false security.

These things are distractions from the true purpose of life. Introspection. Inner growth. Spiritual evolution.

Happiness, love. Peace.

What is right with our lives?

Everything. Living in awareness is conscious evolution.

What is the reward for living a good life?

Stability of surroundings, of societal and familial roles. Peace of body and mind.

Is that really a goal worth living for?

It is the only goal worth living for.

Conversational Etiquette: Dinosaurs, Chupacabras and ad hominim attacks

Apparently the idea of ‘polite society’ has gone the way of the dinosaur.   Requiring a modicrum of respect and civility in these rapidly shifting days and times seems almost as difficult as finding the Yeti. Or a living Chupacabra.

I suppose a lot of that has to do with culture wars and people being raised in different kinds of environments. Not everybody has what we used to call “home training”.   What that meant in the culture that I come from – Southern, Black and Baptist – was that children were generally seen and not heard, Elders were respected, conversation was polite and families took care of their own. And others too, if it became necessary.

Times have changed. A lot of that is now considered to be quaint. People don’t know each other and fear seems to have changed the world into an almost unrecognizeable place in the past couple of decades.   Regular civility has suffered as a result. Maybe it was the advent of the Internet that started it. Email replaced letters, chat and texting replaced phone calls. The lack of face-to-face contact encourages a false companionship and surface conversation.

In that context, asking people to be kind to each other is like asking them for a vital organ.   People want to retain the sovereignty.

And if being polite impinges upon their right to be ornery then, by all the angels in the sky and demons in hell, politeness must be a tool of the New World Order. It must support an old metanarrative thats day is done. It must be a part of the patriarchy. It must be about oppression. It must be about limiting freedom of speech.   Right?

Wrong. Politeness is harmonic. Being resonant to others in your environment indicates your vibratory state. Purposefully inculcating disharmonic intonations is choosing cacaphony over harmony. Sometimes, if the cause is just, that is necessary. But most times, the cause is not just, the cause is egocentric argumentation. Or the attempt to guide and control another’s perspective. Which is never just.

Being respectful and polite is the same as two tuning forks resonating harmonically. Being respectful and polite accords with the laws of conservation of energy. It takes less energy to vibrate at the same pitch as others, it takes more energy to choose a dischordant tone and hold it.   In formal debating, it is drilled into the participants that their disagreement and discourse must be courteous and respectful. Debates rarely get contentious and argumentative and the participants never end up talking about each other’s mamas or sexual preferences. The function of debate is to work through ideas and find the most mathematically precise form of the equation, the argument, that leads to an irreducible and remorseless conclusion.

The correct answer, or truth, in a debate, is always the clearest and most concise argument put forth that presents an answer in a format that fulfills the conditions set by the intial question. In a debate, specious arguments, arguments without foundation and arguments that do not address the main points are quickly seen for what they are.   Informal debates turn into arguments that turn into fights.

Which is why, in places where the participants are not bound by the rules of formal debate, it is necessary to enforce a certain etiquette in order for the conversation to remain civil. When the partipants in discussions that turn into debates are not trained in how to leverage their emotions into precise language focused upon the crux of their argument it devolves into personal ad hominim attacks.

Down in the small, country towns of West Texas, where I’m from, the old folks would just watch in wonder at folks like that, shaking their heads and clucking, “Lord, have mercy. Now that person don’t have no home training at all.”   Polite society may no longer be in vogue, but polite conversation is an absolute requirement for comfortable growth and a sense of psychological safety in an environment where such is the exception rather than the rule.

And, maybe, someday, even the dinosaurs will return.

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.

Understanding Cosmic Geography: Beyond New Age mythology

The scientists try really hard to make this difficult for some reason. It’s not really apparent to me why this might be so unless there is something dangerous about understanding some very basic truths about Creation. I recently watched a video of a popular NASA astronomer who was intent upon debunking “2012 Doomsday Scenarios”. In the process of doing that and attempting to calm fears of the world ending on December 21, 2012, he stated uncategorically that the Earth, viewed from the sun, aligns with the galactic equator twice a year. By making this statement he was telling a fundamental truth. But a truth that is relative and that holds an arguably ancillary relation to the greater cosmic cycles heralded by many systems of knowledge both ancient and new.

The Earth is currently tilted at an approximately 23.5 degree angle on its axis. This means that the Earth’s equator is at an angle to an imaginary line emanating from the sun’s center and passing through the center of it and other planets in the solar system. This imaginary line is called the Plane of the Ecliptic. As the Earth travels around the sun during the course of the year at a speed of 18.4 miles per second, this tilt is actually the reason why we have varying seasons as the Arctic and Antarctic circles are exposed to direct sunlight at oppositional times of year. In the Northern Hemisphere, when the summer solstice arrives on June 20th, the Arctic Circle is bathed in sunlight and that region of the planet experiences a 24 hour day, while, in the Southern Hemisphere on the same day, the Antarctic Circle experiences a 24 hour night. It is during the winter and summer solstices during this particular span of years that the Earth is generally aligned with the Galactic Equator. Since we passed through the Galactic Equator – which is a few hundred light years in thickness - 2 million years ago, Sol-System is currently 50+ light years above it and well into a potential danger zone.

The 23.5 degree “lean” of the Earth, known as the Axial Tilt, results in the apparent but semi-illusory astronomical phenomenon known as the Precession of the Equinoxes, or, the Great Year.  This cycle is an approximately 25,772 year cycle where the stars in the sky seem to apparently move backwards in relation to a position on Earth if seen over the course of this cycle. The Earth precesses, exhibiting a slow, conical movement that causes the stars overhead to circle in a lengthy cycle. For example, the Northern pole star, Polaris, is almost directly over the North Pole (it will be directly over the Pole at about 2100) only for a relatively short while. In time, other stars will be the pole star until such a time in the cycle when Polaris is once again directly over the Pole, indicating the completion of the cycle.  5000 years ago, the star Thuban, in the constellation of Draco was the Pole Star and was designated by the Egyptians as such. In 6,000 years, the Pole Star will be Alderamin in the Cepheus Constellation and in 12,000, it will be near the star Vega, in the Lyra constellation. It has been calculated that the solstice point (the exact center of the sun as viewed from earth) will align with the Galactic Equator circa 2012, which can only occur once in the entire precessional cycle. The exactitude of this particular solstice – as opposed to other, off-centered solstices – is its importance.

In relation to the position of the Sun, Earth and its cohort of planets comprising the solar system orbit at an approximately 90 degree angle to the Galactic Equator, or the Galactic Plane. The Sun, Sol, is orbiting around a central position that theorists posit contains what might be either a singularity known as a Black Hole or an alternating Black Hole/White Hole complex existing in a configuration measured by what is known as the Kruskal-Szekeres Spacetime Coordinate System that then coalesces into a  Schwartzchild Wormhole connecting two universes. The complex interrelationship of these two types of dense energetic agglomerations results in oppositional yin and yang-like actions, with Black Holes drawing in energy and White Holes  ejecting energy.  According to the model, the two types of energy processing singularities may alternate in space and time in a spiraling, cyclical fashion that results in both Creation and Destruction phases.

It takes Sol-System approximately 226 million years, moving at a rate of 135 miles per second, to orbit this mysterious central region of the Milky Way galaxy. This time period is known as the Cosmic or Galactic Year and is measured through observations made by the Hubble Telescope fixated upon Sagittarius A, an astronomical radio source which lies upon the border of the Sagittarius and Scorpius constellations very near the center of the galaxy.  Since the center of the Milky Way Galaxy has not yet been directly observed – while the idea of at least a singular Black Hole existing at the center of many galaxies is considered a scientific fact –  the approximation of the composition of the Galaxy’s central region remains subject to relational measurements, hence the designation of Sagittarius A as galactic center by the scientific establishment.

The planets are of course orbiting the sun throughout this period and do so at an approximately 90 degree angle to the Galactic Equator or Plane as mentioned previously. A significant aspect of the solar system’s circumnavigation of the galaxy is the fact that the Sun’s ecliptic plane is always oriented toward the Galactic Center which may indicated an established energetic relationship. This possibility adds credence to the insistence upon the alignment of the Earth with the Sun and the Galactic Equator in December of 2012 as being of resonant import. Positions A, B and C in the image to the right reflect the position of the December Solstice sun 3000 years ago, 1,500 years ago and this year, indicating its location in relation to the Milky Way galaxy. Besides moving towards and away (tidal motion) from the Galactic Center, Sol-System also moves up and down in relation to the Galactic Plane. It takes 64 million years to complete one of these perpendicular oscillations, meaning that Sol-System is above the Galactic Plane for 64 million years and below the Galactic Plane for 64 million years.  Also according to the article linked above regarding the potential danger zone above the Galactic Plane, this wave-like motion results in greater and lesser protection from cosmic radiation, exemplified by the Earth’s bio-diversity cycle – measured as the time between mass extinctions – which, at 62 million years in duration, almost exactly corresponds to the planet’s movement above and below the Galaxy’s equator.

Sol-System and the Earth have passed above the Galactic Plane which has resulted in an increase in cosmic energy bombarding the planet as well as an increased risk of comet strikes.  The Sun and other sources of radiation can drastically affect the climate of Earth as well as seismic and volcanic activity. This measured increase of incoming energy may result in a decrease in bio-diversity and a potential mass extinction that may be more related to the movement of the solar system rather than any anthropogenic causes, as may also be the case with global warming as a solar-systemic rather than a purely planetary phenomenon.

There currently exists much contention around these topics  and, seemingly, much disinformation. The connection between emotions and energy is well established in the scientific literature. If more energy enters Earth-System it only stands to reason that people across the world will undergo certain types of collective emotional experiences as a result. While the energetic aspect and implications of increased bombardment of the planet by cosmic radiation is understood by scientists to result in genetic changes that have been proven to lead to a higher mortality rate, there is little overt discussion of these topics in the mainstream nor is there any indication that such is forthcoming.

It also seems to be the case that the disinformation campaign has permeated current-day spiritual movements as well. Confused and non-scientific proclamations regarding “photon belts” and “central suns” unnecessarily distort perceptions and take advantage of the unwary. The purported photon belt has been posited to surround the solar system or to be a fixed region of space the Earth is entering, while the star Alcyone is purported to be the galaxy’s “central sun”. The photon belt theories are based upon the “super-wave” concept as developed by Dr. Paul LaViolette describing cosmic ray volleys emanating from the central region of our galaxy. These rays result in measurable impacts upon climate and lifeforms. The Pleiades constellation and Alcyone are in the opposite direction (as measured from Sol-System and Earth’s perspective) from the galactic core and Sol-System cannot orbit a star further distant from the galactic core than itself.

While the Photon Belt idea does hold some credence in that it is based upon a very real and measurable energetic phenomenon, the state of nigh-religious fervor distracting the gullible from the true nature of things remains problematic. The brilliant luminosity and massive physicality of Sagittarius A actually serves to reinforce it’s status as candidate for some “central sun” ideal as does its location, while Alcyone and the Pleiades serve only as distractions, literally guiding people’s gaze in the opposite direction from Truth.

Perhaps this state of affairs serves the Establishment in keeping the public relatively unaware of the nature of our world, solar-system, galaxy and universe.  As long as people are kept ignorant of the cyclical nature of reality and the proven challenges that arrive like clockwork to overtake and devastate the Earth there will be no uncomfortable questions or mass hysteria. Perhaps it is the state of uncertainty itself which forces governments and science into perhaps unwitting conspiratorial collusion as the paucity of direct evidence and sure knowledge make predictive declarations politically dangerous for individuals and institutions.

Whatever the case may be, there are some things that are most certainly known and that have a direct bearing upon our world and state of collective consciousness. Being aware of the cyclical nature of reality is fundamental to a general knowledge of how the world works and is a necessary part of any basic education. Taking an holistic view of disparate phenomenon – as done in this article – brings to light some very interesting potentialities for the near and distant future. There are indeed challenges to collective and individual physical, mental and spiritual stability now and to come, to be sure. But the world will not end on December the 21, 2012 despite deliberate and derogatory generalizations characterizing non-mainstream spiritualists by mainstream paradigmatic hitmen.

It has become quite evident that ancient civilizations had access to planetary, solar systemic and galactic knowledge that far exceeds our current grasp of reality. The oft misinterpreted depictions of the ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Mayans and other peoples have resulted in the free and uninformed cultural appropriation of systems of measurement and thought foreign to minds of today. The extent to which sound affects the physical world and language mirrors thought and affects the genetic makeup of individuals is a sobering reality-check upon our modern ability to fully understand the seemingly multidimensional nature of polytonal (Eastern, Southern) as opposed to monotonal (Western) languages. However these ancient peoples came by their knowledge of the universe, their insistence upon the cyclical nature of reality and the repeated destruction of civilizations due to cosmic energetic shifts is a consistent theme the world across.

The culminations of planetary, solar systemic and galactic cycles present opportunities for energetic shifts to peak and then dissipate over time as our solar system and world enter, traverse and then pass new regions of space.  How we respond to these energetic changes biologically, mentally and spiritually is, to a large extent, both an individual and a collective endeavor. We must, as a species, become comfortable with the fact that our world must change and that it is beyond our collective ability as a technological species to determine the nature of that change. How we individually relate to the Times and to the coming world can represent deliberate and informed point loci of viral effectiveness within an information-driven network as our knowledge becomes shared with our social groupings and then radiates outwards in a web of ever-increasing awareness.

There will come a point when it becomes impossible to hide the truth of what is occurring. Concentrating personal attention and focus by seeking truth in an unwavering fashion will in turn hone individual purpose and intention, consolidating psychological and spiritual systems around key aspects of reality pertaining to personal evolution. Knowing the Truth, therefore, is being the Truth. The Truth that must soon pervade the consciousness-oriented meme of our post-modern and pre-apocalyptic collective.

So You Think You’re Awakened: What next?

You already know what it feels like to wake up.  Every morning, you find yourself in a place where you are aware of your surroundings. It may be the alarm clock, it may be a ray of sunshine floating through your blinds to caress your eye-lids, it may be some other sound. You find yourself lying there for however long, experiencing. Then, suddenly, you become aware of yourself experiencing. The day floods in and the night recedes instantly, you begin to think of getting up, your plans for the day. Any dreams you may have been having slip into unconsciousness, as the waking mind is not equipped to fully understanding them. This is the common experience of awakening.

There is another type of awakening that occurs in pretty much the same manner. This Awakening has different variations and levels, much like the kind of awakening that you are currently familiar with.

During the course of any normal day, we are each relatively aware of our sojourn through life. We believe we know who we are and why we are here. Many of us have religious beliefs; we think there is a God, maybe in Heaven above, maybe somewhere else. We know there is a government, we know there are problems with the financial system. We know people who have it really good and many of us now know people who have it really bad, so we are aware that there are variations along a scale, although we may only be vaguely aware of why. We know that there are inequalities; we may have experienced them personally in some instance during our lives and have a memories of times when we were personally victimized. Our perspectives seem fixed, our experiences, straightforward, and this is enough of an awakening to make it through the course of any normal life.

But just being able to navigate the daily grind is not enough anymore. There have always come points in human history when people at a larger scale of occurrence begin to realize that there is more to their world than has previously met the eye.  Often, it has happened against the direction of the collective will. People have had to be dragged, kicking and screaming from their placid lives – although this occurred figuratively, most often – as events and facts revealing an alternate understanding of the world began to amass beyond their capacity to deny. If the dragging and screaming occurred literally, it was often too late and their awakening coincided with the onset of the final sleep, death.

The first and most common type of Awakening these days is economic. Ever since the collapse of the monetary system in 2008, brought on by unregulated financial instruments and predatory lending, things have gotten worse for the majority of the world’s people. While wealth has continued its relentless path of concentration in the richest hands and banks, the Western world’s middle class ranks have been steadily thinning. Faced with joblessness, the lack of opportunities and limited welfare benefits, the realization that the educational system actually mis-educates has been sinking into the minds of more and more people.  Understanding out-sourcing, international economic agreements, the trans-national nature of corporations and other previously arcane topics sends the newly disenchanted down rabbit holes filled with information previously disdained and irrelevant to the lives of the sleeping, but newly relevant to the burgeoning understanding of the nascent Seeker.

It is true that drugs, alcohol, television and video games can delay the search for truth for a while. But, without a job to be able to afford these things for long, the Seeker then has few other options available to him other than to attempt to understand why this has happened. Why her perception of the world has shifted and what the new parameters of reality have become.

The second type of Awakening that often seems as if it is the pinnacle of consciousness is often reached through the study of politics, but includes aspects of economics as well as general cultural production and world history. This type of Awakening occurs when one becomes aware of the existence of secret societies and their history within the evolution of Western Civilization.  It often begins once one is apprised of the meaning of the symbols on the American one dollar bill and proceeds from there through wormholes of potentiality where Illuminated Ones mask themselves as Knights Templar and Masons, as Rosicrutians and Hospitallers. Into a space of understanding where Boy Scouts become neophytes engaging in arcane rites of passage while Disney cartoons and the Wizard of Oz turn out to be more diabolical than innocent. Turning down this path is dangerous for the Seeker, as the information gleaned therein begins to separate her from her family, friends and society itself. People start to look at him askance, wondering if she’s still putting in job applications. If he’s thought of joining the Peace Corps yet or applied to teach English in China. Once adversity rears its ugly head in the form of social censure, ostracization and the broaching of unpopular and apparently taboo subjects, a deeper form of Awakening begins.

The third type of Awakening that happens to people is related to the first two. It occurs when people begin to really understand that not only does the system not have their best interest at heart, but that it is actually trying to kill us all. Beyond the economic system, beyond the politics, it soon becomes clear to the Seeker that the environment around us has been eviscerated by human greed and consumptive patterns of living. But not only is it the external, biological environment that has been under attack, but the internal, physiological environment has been invaded as well. The food that we eat, the beverages that we drink, the products that we use to cleanse ourselves and live our daily lives often have toxic repercussions upon and within our bodies. From fluoride in the water and toothpaste to aspartame in our drinks. From mercury in our teeth to the numerous pharmaceutical offerings of questionable potency and probable toxicity, the Seeker begins to understand that he is seen as a commodity to the corporate overlords and so is imminently expendable. This understanding  then leads the Seeker to naturopathy and holistic health; to seeking alternative and health-building not health-destroying ways to live that impact the body and the earth in a minimal fashion. Vegetarianism, Veganism and Frutarianism are paths that become viable to the Seeker as she begins to understand the true nature of the world and her place in it.

And this is where the path of Awakening generally ends, for most people. And why not? Up until this point, the Seeker has gone from placidly going about his daily life, content with the mainstream pleasures and accomplishments that are generally indicative of success in life. A job, a family, a bit of spending money, maybe a house, condo or nice apartment, friends and vacation time.  Coming to the understanding that a life lived consciously is comprised of much more than just going along to get along is a quantum leap from a start-point of ignorant material comfort and nominal success.

This is an evolution of consciousness, right? Losing financial stability in life or seeing someone close to them lose it may have brought her through the steps of Awakening all the way to the point where he has begun to live a transformed life. The Seeker no longer drinks grape or red soda. She is now eating veggie burgers instead of prime sirloin steak, he even eat fruit now instead of candy. Their carbon footprint has lessened – as they probably now recycle – drive less – if they even have a car – and don’t litter. Even if materially poor, the Seeker is attempting to live consciously, aware of what is going on around himself and aware of her own responsibility as a citizen of the world. So what else could there be?  What further type of Awakening is possible?

Thus far, the path of Awakening has corresponded exactly to the process of waking up each day as enumerated earlier: 1) an awareness of one’s surroundings, occasioned by some intrusion upon primal consciousness (noise, light, pervasive being-ness, etc.; living life unaware of Self; omnipresence) 2) awareness becoming aware of itself (thinking of the day; learning what the world really is; omniscience) 3) awareness projecting consciousness into materiality (getting out of bed; living consciously; omnipotence).  Not coincidentally, the experience of mundane awakening approximates the cultural Awakening process brought about by research and information synthesis and integration (holistic economic, political and cultural awareness), which then leads to the next level of iteration, that which represents the process that is the subliminal goal of all previous efforts, culminating in the beginning of the Seeker’s sojourn upon the path of Higher Awakening. The three-stage process mentioned above is also, not coincidentally, an exact rendition of the steps of material manifestation, of Creation itself as expressive of the most sublime principles of spiritual understanding.

At this stage of the process, it is no longer about studying or debating, sharing or even caring what other people think about you and your path in life. It is about going deep within. It is about connecting with your spiritual core. Knowing exactly who you are.

This is formidable task. This is where most Seekers balk. This is where most fall back into the comfort of group-think and stagnation, preferring intellectual masturbation to inner knowledge. This is where the programs of a lifetime reassert their primacy, where the ego recognizes the threat and responds. Where a not-so-subtle material re-entrenchment occurs once you’ve realized that you’ve reached the point beyond which your family and friends must finally realize that you’ve gone Off the Reservation and are no longer even attempting to conform to their culturally-based standards of normality and social acceptability.

This is the point where knowledge becomes lived reality, something done rather than something thought or talked about. The goal of all life, all evolution; beyond thought, beyond conception, beyond understanding. To finally and truly Be, integral consciousness manifest, existing within the eye of the storm, the center of the circle, placid and peaceful, flowing through life formed yet formless, like water, malleable yet firm, self-aware within and thusly aware of all else without.

But that’s a topic for another day. Welcome, to the real world.

Sunbeam Dreams and the Recriminations of the Mind

Soul’s full bloom opens
with the light of
dawn’s bursting frenzy,
illuminating somnolent
night.

Through the eyes of
love,
creation blossoms;
birth, death and rebirth
cyclic and eternal
scions of divinity’s
conscious intent.

I suppose awakening fully to the knowledge that you’re not being all you can be is a daunting prospect. Realizing that all that you’ve done during your life is only a portion of what you’ve always been fully capable of is an indictment of intention and purpose that really begs the question, why?

Why do we not live up to our potential? What choice is it that we make that leaves us lying in the bed watching motes of dust dance on sunbeams as the morning passes and midday approaches and we listen to the cars in the distance, floating gently in recrimination and soothing, non-judgemental daydreams? At what point do the circumstances of your life reach a critical point at which you must, finally, make a decision regarding who you are and where you are going?

Can it be so easy? Is there one, specific point in our lives that we can look back to that we can say, without hesitation, “There. That is the place where I decided to be the person that I am today.”

Maybe mama’s soothing voice carried you through childhood and beyond, echoing in memory as a rippling reflection of perception. Maybe it didn’t and she was a cold shrew, her eyes lasers of recrimination and unrealized dreams. Memory and love play hide and seek sometimes, ducking behind feelings and scenes that seem set in stone. But you can never be sure if what you remember happened exactly as you think it did, in fact, talking to others sometimes bring forth memories you’d forgotten you had, or recasts other memories in a new light as you are reminded of specific incidences that you may have suppressed, or, more likely, not paid attention to when they were occuring in the first place. Daddy was there or not there, sometimes stern and strong, sometimes weak and vacillating but he was daddy, and you loved him either way. Only child or burdened with brothers and sisters, the lessons of responsibility came hard and fast during the maturation process, interactions with family preparing the way for school. The early trauma of playground bullies, treacherous playmates or home situations that were less than perfect mark the twisted path with signposts of screaming pain, each of which turns us from one direction to another or beckons us further along that smaller, darker path, leading down into the brambles and underbrush of the deep, scary forest of lost dreams and desire.

Is it truly a choice to be slave to your conditioning? And, if so, at what point does one realize it, if ever? And, if one choose to become fully realized in such a way, what does it take to move past the conditioning of the past, and become more than a familial or societal Manchurian Candidate?

It is at the point where you realize that carrying around the old scores and festering wounds of ancient, and fresh, trials and tribulations is actually weighing you down – preventing you from moving forward into the present without anger, without pain, without interpreting every, single event that happens to you through eyes that are still seeing your father, mother, uncle, cousin, friend, enemy of years and years ago, doing whatever they did, saying whatever they said, being whoever they were to you, back then – that you become consciously aware of your enslavement, and are able to make sober decisions regarding your present course of action.

I don’t even have to close my eyes to see Del City, Oklahoma, me on my Grit route delivering my papers, and Mike Clark and his little toady following me through the neighborhood shouting taunts and racial slurs, me finally making it home only to have my next door neighbor and best friend, Jeff McDaniels, ask me why Mike Clark was calling my mother a “Black Bitch”? Mike Clark and his curses didn’t hurt me half as much as that smirk Jeff couldn’t hide and the gleam in his eye that told me he knew the place those words came from intimately and that, just maybe, he was not the friend I thought he was.

Continuous series of memories of ghostly interactions that are no more real now than they were when they occuring. The statement by the spiritually-evolved that life is an illusion makes a little bit of sense when you think about how quickly things happen, and the fact that by the time something happens it’s already over and you’re interpreting it in your mind, applying weight and meaning to events that occurred in the space of an instant and then receded, becoming memory almost before you even knew that it was happening. All of life is like that, and most of our mental work is concerned with keeping up, trying not to go down beneath the continuous flow of happenings, of thoughts, the cause and effect of all movement, be it mental, physical or spiritual in nature.

What does it gain us to hold on to pain, when it is just as easy to let it go like an amnesiac? Is it true that we are defined by our past? By who we have been? When someone asks you about yourself, what do you say? Do you rattle off a litany of facts? “I am so and so from somewhere or another, my mama is that woman and my brother is that dude. I went to school here and joined the whatever and spent five years over there doing this and that until I got back here and met you right now.”

Is that truly who you are?

Or is it, rather, who you were.

And, if that is who you were? A continuous series of “weres” that is in progress even up to this very moment, then who does that make you right now? I mean, right then? And then? And thenandthenandthenandthenandthen? Who are we, right Now, right this instant, and how do we determine who we are? Can we do so through the eyes of others? Through our parents? Our siblings? Our significant others? Do they know who we are? When they tell us who we are, do we always agree with them?

Hm. The process of ‘determining’, of ‘defining’ is a process of thought, of judgement, of rationalization and of stultification, whereby you take on the characteristics of a fossilized instant, projecting your past into your future through the medium of the present. Make sense? I’m who I am and I define I by who I was then not by who I am Now or who I will be along the continuous series of Nows.

All of this occurs beneath thought. It is programming, barely conscious and runs like a maintainance program beneath the web browser of our senses, and while we’re dealing with the detritus of the material world, watching the dust motes, listening to the cars and birds and thinking about where we went wrong in our lives, we are continuously sinking deeper and deeper into self-definition and further enslavement to the “Me’s, I’s and You’s” of the past, the manifestations of Ego that work remorselessly at self-preservation. Realizing that your ego structure has to maintain itself constantly by making us think that we are only human, and not super-human spirits on a journey through time and space, not at all bound by the confines of our bodies or this world.

If we realized that Truth in every moment, we would not be bound by anything or anybody. It is the Ego’s task to keep us grounded in this world, though – bound to the lives we’ve created – to whisper to us from the depths of the subconscious, “You can’t do that. You aren’t trained for that line of work. You’re too shy. Nobody can levitate. It’s impossible. C’mon. She’s too beautiful for you. He’s too smart. Don’t you remember what your daddy did to you when you were small? What your mama said about you? You’re nothing but a little slut, a big dummy, an ignorant boy and silly girl and you’ll never, ever, ever amount to a thing.”

Falling beneath the weight
of the past
peering out from under
words and deeds
woven in a tapestry of Life
despairing.

Black depression, pressing
down, breath harsh
wheezing, eyes dimming
tears flowing, falling
cold distaste regarding a
life less lived than
survived.

Taking control of your mind will be a form of warfare. It is used to being in charge, to defining who you are, to telling you what your goals are. Becoming familiar with what lies beyond the mind, then, becomes our paramount task. That powerful consciousness that observes, watches, calculates and stores energy and intention in a depthless resevoir of potential. Accessibility is gained through prayer, service and meditation. Prayer addresses the Divinity in Creation, the perceived Outer World. Service is an affront to the Ego, because the Ego is selfish, and so by serving others with a good will and true heart, the Ego retreats from the stage, leaving your individual portion of Divine Love shining like a star for all to feel, and bask in. And meditation familiarizes you with those inner shores of your spiritual sea, the waters that connect to the greater consciousness without, making what is within part of that greater whole.

The path can take us through a lifetime, or become the choice of a moment. Releasing the ‘stuff of the past’ depends upon how much we use it to define us in the present. Letting go of past loves, past pains, just the past is difficult, since we are who we are because of who we’ve been. Living life with the full spectrum of possibility available to you is such an inconceivable thing that we dare not even dream of what it means.

So take a moment right now, and do what your Ego does not want you to do. Dream, and realize that you are whoever you choose to be and that, whoever that is, is something and someone new upon the face of the Earth, living each moment in joy and the abandonment of wondrous and continuous birth, accessing all of the powers of the Divine to consciously co-create the Now.