The Illusion of Pain

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I was thinking a lot over the holidays having a lot of time to just relax and do absolutely nothing (which is rare for me).  I was thinking specifically about emotional pain.  Having a strong interest in helping others understand and come to terms with pain, I was toying with an idea.  I’ve written in my books about the concept of malware.  Malware as I’ve used it is very much like a computer virus that get’s in and infiltrates your computer’s operating system.  I see pain not at all differently.  It becomes like an emotional virus that infiltrates and infects our mental human operating system.  Once resident (and there is something resident in all of us), it results in pain deep within us that causes our perspectives to be jaded, skewed and well, often, completely inaccurate.  It causes us to lose our ability to see the truth in our human interactions.  There is much we can do once we realize that we have something within us that needs our attention.  We can learn to find out what it is, understand it and then learn to see things differently thus minimizing the effect of the “malware.” 

A interesting thought I had was whether pain ever truly healed or not.  I mean, it seems that once we have been emotionally wounded, those wounds never seem to go away. At least not entirely (if they did, how come we keep being triggered?). We go through our lives reacting, wincing, transferring and projecting the pain that we’ve suffered to and through others as we interact with each other. I think malware stems from beliefs we have created around emotional wounds. For some, the malware is mostly benign and so there is no real or dramatic harm done. But for others, this malware becomes an epic roadblock to our ability to have and maintain healthy human relationships.  What do we do then?  Is there no hope?  Is there no cure?  I think that the pain caused by malware (and that term should be read as a hidden belief held with a pain charged memory) cannot ever be healed.  Yes.  You read that right.  Pain suffered emotionally cannot be healed.  It remains resident like the RAM resident programs in your computer’s operating system (e.g., programs that take up memory continually while your computer is running – draining and dragging on your computer’s performance).  This malware in the human mental operating system does the same thing.  It runs in the background taking up precious energy, clouding our memories, our vision and our experience and there it remains, mostly undetected by us consciously.  Oh, others may see it and even draw it to our attention but in so doing, it just results in poking the wound causing us to react.

I have proposed that pain cannot be healed.  That once you have formed a belief with an emotionally charged memory, the pain is there and remains forever resident in our mental operating system.  Well, that is until you can find the precise belief that is at the true core of the malware and seek to understand it.  Now, that understanding part is like climbing Mount Everest and just like climbing said mountain, you’ll need a guide.  You truly need someone to help you navigate unfamiliar terrain, to help guide you around the cervices, canyons and steep slippery slopes.  It isn’t easy.  But, once you have engaged in the climb and endeavored to find and root out those beliefs that formed emotionally charged memories that resulted in malware running in the background of your conscious existence, you can begin to understand.  Once you come to understand the belief at the core of the pain, you don’t really heal it or make it go away but you come to understand it.  Once you come to understand it, you start removing the energetic charge of emotion.  With the highest level of understanding possible, you could completely transform the malware through understanding and then the whole belief and its perceived emotional harm can be transformed as if it where a fog being dissipated by the sun’s light.  We don’t remove it completely in this regard but we understand it.  Through awareness, we can understand our own behavior and eliminate reactions to certain situations that trigger the original pain from the belief.  Once you can get to this plateau, you can walk a little taller, with more confidence and less of the malware filters your experiences.  You learn to react differently.

Now, how do you know if you have something infecting your human mental operating system?  There are many ways to tell.  What are you afraid of?  What causes you the most pain?  What do you dislike the most in others?  What do you dislike in yourself?  What have been the sticking points in current or past relationships?  Did you know that you are so amazing that you will actually attract to you the very specific kinds of people you need to interact with that will help bring the original belief to light?  Did you know this isn’t limited to personal relationships and that it can happen on the job, during shopping trips or even while driving?  We even invite certain situations to us that will brush up against that belief and cause us to wince a little bit not as punishment but as a reminder that something is resident in the psyche that maybe shouldn’t be.  If you can find it, and I do not by any stretch of the imagination mean to suggest that it is a simple and easy process, but you can dissipate the malware through understanding.  When you can do this, your perceptions and perspectives are automatically transformed and your old behaviors and desires for interactions are also transformed bringing you new and hopefully healthier experiences.

I think that we run into these situations on purpose.  I think it is part of our life or lesson plan to take on certain things to over come.  That doesn’t mean we have to stay stuck in the class.  See my article on A Class in Life for some additional food for thought.  I believe that we were not put here to suffer for our sins (or past beliefs that formed emotionally charged painful memories).  I believe that we were put here to learn and transform the things we hold within our egoic selves or little “c” consciousness that prevent us from knowing fully the truth about us.  Once you can find a way to dig deep beneath the layers of the accumulated beliefs that have truly caused you nothing but pain and a compromised human mental operating system, you can live a more meaningful life with a sense of greater well-being.  Anything is possible when you make up your beautiful mind and take action.  As the Tao Te Ching says, even a 1,000-mile journey begins with a single step.  So too, does the journey of healing begin.  Although healing is a funny word, when you get to the true essence of it, healing isn’t really about finding an emotional wound and treating it.  It is removing the idea of something you think exists through understanding the truth from a 360-degree perspective. When you can get there, all illusions fall away.  Pain never just heals on its own with time.  It is a filter we carry with us to protect certain wounds we believe that we have accumulated.  And, well, we do have them as long as we choose to run certain programs (read:  View certain experiences in a specific way to protect yourself from pain).  Sometimes just acknowledging something exists and going through the pain helps you to release it.  However, when you can come to a state of true understanding, the original wound in the mind is eliminated through the transformation by understanding it.  The pain is gone, we heal and learn to live with our experience as well as learn to integrate the emotions and all of the reinforcements of it that we’ve carried all of these years.  That does take time but it is worth it to explore I think.  A life lived in emotional pain is a tough life to live.  If you find yourself there mentally, physically or spiritually, please do seek out the right kind of assistance for yourself.  You have so many options from self-help books, counselors in psychology, metaphysics or spiritual…all can be of assistance if you want it.

My theory is just that, a theory.  I write about this often and have touched on these subjects in a number of my books written specifically to bring light to these concepts.  ChangingPerspectives:  The Journey is theDestination, ExpandingHorizons:  Growth and Beyond, So, It’s Over.  Now What?, Awakening from the Dream and Solving for X all carry this theme as does my online training course, Exploring the Conscious Self (see Training tab).  We all carry what we carry for very good reasons and through the experience of carrying wounds, we learn.  This means that an emotional wound is not a death sentence but an opportunity or challenge, if you are to take up the challenge you actually presented for yourself to overcome.  That is the metaphysical or spiritual twist to all of this, I suppose.  As a metaphysical practitioner, I cannot help but look to all sources for understanding.  Through being resourceful and tenacious, I find there is nothing I cannot overcome. The only failure one can ever truly achieve is never trying.  But even in that, we have a choice.  We can endeavor to grow with intention or continue to unconsciously.  Life truly is amazing.  With my theory, I have intended to paint a picture of understanding because I have discovered that this simple act of understanding or being open to understanding or seeking understanding has become the key that has unlocked so very many doors for me.  I hope understanding opens doors for you as well.

As you go into the New Year, I challenge you to consider “understanding” in all that you do.  I challenge you to become very curious about your lives and the multiple meanings every single interaction and event holds.  Enjoy your time here in every way that you possibly can.  I wish you great blessings of love, light and understanding.

 

© 2014, J.L. Harter (photo and words)

For more information about personal or one on one sessions of metaphysical/spiritual exploration, please visit The Ministry of Connected Consciousness at

http://www.ministryofconnectedconsciousness.org.

Book by Jaie Hart: Awakening from the Dream is out now!

This work represents both an ending and a beginning and that is much the way life is….endings and beginnings. Dreams begin and end. Lives begin and end. There is one thing, however, that has no end and that is our Consciousness. Within this work I explore Life in the context of a Dream and the impact of our eventual awakening within that Dream. We all carry the seeds of awakening within us and at just that right moment, we will all awaken from The Dream.

Available at Http://www.jaiehart.com

A Class in Life

Consider something way far outside of the lines for a moment.  Clear your mind of all preconceived notions, perceptions and beliefs.  Go back into the imaginary part of your being like that of childhood where imagination was plentiful and so much fun.  Imagine a moment; a time before this life.  Imagine that lives were like a catalog of classes that you wished to take to learn.  So, you visit the grand library in a crystal city far far away outside of time and space and you have your guidance counselors with you knowing your history, the levels of the learning you have achieved so far.  Imagine vast catalogs of potential life classes that you could choose to take.  Imagine selecting one and studying it, spending time contemplating your spirit and your soul and where it needs strength or more experience.  Imagine now selecting a life plan that presents you with all sorts of possibilities to support the life lesson (or class) you wished to choose for incarnation in this realm.

You carefully consider and discuss with your guides the life you have chosen.  You converse with your soul family and decide upon a most opportune course of study in the realm of Earth in this Third-Dimensional existence.  You prepare for the life as you would a college course.  You brush up on the knowledge you’ll need to take with you.  You might study a bit of some of the similar courses you’ve taken (e.g., other lives) that call to you in full remembrance the other lives in which you have previously learned things that might help you in the next class like taking and completing all lower level math classes before ascending into algebra, calculus and then trig.  You brush up and ready yourself to incarnate here on Earth in this dimension through concentrated conscious projection.

The thing about the life or class that you choose is that there must be a premise from which you operate or handicaps of various kinds that will set up for you the most perfect opportunity to truly learn.  Maybe you have to take a life you might from this life consider as difficult as calculus or something like it but although you’ve studied all other forms of math, this time, you don’t get to take your notes or your calculator.  The design of the program you set up with your guides and soul family creates an ample opportunity for you to learn and slowly over time your memories of prior learnings will become reinforced as you live the next life.  Knowing this, you gladly leave those memories behind or the calculator even because you know these things are ingrained within the memories within the archives of your soul.  At the right time and with the right study, the lessons previously learned will represent themselves in new places, faces or times.  So, you come (project your consciousness into Earth) and you grow with a family that helps reinforce the premise or handicap.  I have called this malware but it is not some victimizing thing at all but rather the very thing that helps you learn and reinforce all prior learning when you incarnate.

While projecting your consciousness here in this frame, you remain connected to your spirit back home, your guides and the idea or concept of the lesson plan chosen.  You also carry with you the latent memories within your soul that you can, at the right time, access.  You grow into your life incarnate on Earth and have many experiences that reinforce your learning.  Whatever it is you set out to learn, your life is perfectly designed to bring to you the most opportune events and people to assist you in your learning.  There will be those who share similar lessons or the opposite aspect of what you are learning in terms of other Soul Family who incarnated here with you and together you learn and together you grow.  You continue in this fashion until your spirit has gained all of the knowledge you wished and then it begins to fade its projection in the Third-Dimensional reality.  The vital essence of the body begins to subside, the fullness of your body’s experience appears to deteriorate and you turn gray and begin aging all in perfect time holding all of the new and beautiful lessons you have had the opportunity to learn.  The final day comes and you let go of this projection here and then with a final breath in the manner of your planning and choosing comes and you allow the projection to be turned off.

You find yourself now in the space between and eventually make your way back to the place you truly started from, Elsewhere.  When you arrive back home you are greeted by guides and loved ones so happy to see you return and so eager to hear how your journey of life went and you celebrate together the things that you learned and you receive encouragement for your efforts and you debrief from the lesson or class just completed.  You rest and recuperate glad you got through it, grateful for the opportunity to learn and then you sit and take it all in with all the other things that you’ve learned.  If more learning is what you most need, you know the way back to the Grand library and can strike out again and may wish to retake portions of your last lesson because you could have done it better or you may wish to assist one of your soul family members who wanted to retest his or her abilities in form.

In contemplating all of the various levels humanity seems to exist within, this idea, this imaginary idea seems to speak to the reason why there are all manner of experiences here…some good and some bad but what if every class isn’t your favorite class?  Sometimes we must take classes we’re not very good at and look around you, some people are not very good at this thing called life and that is really and truly okay because by the very act of them being present here, they learn and as they learn, they expand the collective of knowledge.  Each spirit that projects here to learn adds to the seasoning of the dish or the color of the artwork that is the Whole of our shared Consciousness.  If we can contemplate this view if even for a moment, we can find greater compassion for others here learning instead of raw toxic judgment.  What do you think?

© 2014 Jaie Hart (photo Google - aetherforce.com)

Precious Seconds

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We can neither hold another’s happiness nor put the responsibility on another to hold our happiness.  At least not if we expect to live a normal and healthy well-adjusted and balanced life.  But here’s the thing, not all of us are here to live a normal and healthy well-adjusted and balanced life.  We judge those that come here with a different life plan than ours.  There are those who come here to live out the darker side of their nature and in doing so, their knowledge lends to the whole yet a different but no less important dimension to our global understanding.  It’s easy and often insensitive to tell others “Just be happy” or “Just choose the light” for some are unable and wholly ill-equipped to do that due to the various forms of malware running rampant in their psyches or the frameworks from which they operate.  Their life plans are no better or worse than yours.  If you judge their goals by your own, you may judge them as horrible, dramatic or wrong in their behavior but what if it is the Truth that we are wrong?  What if it is that it is we who do not understand the much broader paradigm of lesson learning here on the Earth plane?

The Earth School is filled with comedies and tragedies great!  We learn from both the negative and the positive and do with that information what ever it is we choose to.  To tell the depressed, just be happy is insulting.  To tell the criminally insane to just behave is a waste of breath.  To tell the racists to just stop it may be justified but can they just stop it given the framework of their fear and understanding?  None of these groups have learned yet the things they intended to learn and what if, what if they are actually here to teach those of us who are aware what is better for us to engage in if we wish to live better, love more and find happiness?  I personally don’t find these behaviors savory to be honest and would that I controlled the world, there are a good number of things I would gladly eradicate but who am I to decide what this world should be?  There is a power greater than I at work in the design and development of this paradigm within which we live here in life on Earth.  We co-create and must learn to co-exist with love, with dignity, with honor and respect at least at some level I think.  With some, this can be learned in one go at life here in the Earth school but with others it takes them many lessons and many life times to “get it” and by “get it” I mean the deeper lessons of the beautiful potential of humanity.

I lean towards sensitivity, love, respect, honor and integrity but that is me and my life path.  Those that do not align with those aspects in their life paths cannot be measured by mine and in truth, mine can not be measured by theirs.  I’m a live and let live kind of soul at heart but I can say and I will say that it hurts me to see the depths some souls sink to in their learning, the desperation that exists causing so much harm, strife, hatred and fear in this world.  To me, it seems unnecessary and a very tough row to hoe or road to travel but that is just my perspective and my perspective is only the culmination of my life experience and my collective judgments of all that I see, hear and feel filtered through my perception of the world.  I would like to judge murder, abuse of any kind and dishonesty wrong but if I do that in the absence of understanding a soul’s path or what that soul may be learning through suffering, my judgment neither helps those I witness nor supports them in their journey.  In fact, it can actually hinder me on my journey in ways I cannot comprehend. I can only seek to understand and judge myself accurately and sometimes I even struggle with that.

When I witness the activities of some inhabitants of this world, my heart breaks.  It breaks for the collateral damage that runs on for an eternity in waves that touch so many.  But then I have to think about that.  Like ripples on a pond our actions and behaviors affect the whole of that pond.  So what can I do as a human being that is part of this great humanity in existence?  I can learn to manage my own ripples and waves so that as they go out and away from me, they go with love, they go with understanding, they go with light and they go with healing.  The wake I leave behind me traversing my own path must be my focus. What is it that I wish to leave behind me?  Is it good or bad by my own standards?  Are those standards in true alignment with my own soul’s purpose?  I can’t really think it through because it is not my mind that can dictate a thing as right or wrong but rather a vibrating frequency of alignment I feel as I go.  Where I to become twisted, hurt or angry as I go, I know something isn’t right in my own behavior.  That has to be my guide for I know in my path my goal is understanding, my goal is light and my goal is to weave much love and compassion into all that I do.  Am I successful at it all of the time?  Certainly not but I always aspire to be all that I can and to accomplish what I came for and I know, so too, does everyone else…each in his or her own way.

So, my thought and theme for the day is this, seek you much understanding.  Rather than a quick judgment in the negative, harsh words or blame which creates much toxicity within you primarilly, consider first, does this thought bring me up or down?  Does this thought bring up others or bring them down?  Am I supporting my own light and love?  Am I supporting and honoring the light and love in another?  Every single thing that we do matters and contributes to the whole of existence.  What mark do you truly wish to leave on this world with your beloved presence with in it?  Does it lend more depth and definition to the collective or does it hinder or hurt in some way?  I bring you only food for thought and not one single thing that can be proven definitively wrong or right and life here is like that by design. 

One thing I do must definitely suggest is that you question your beliefs and perceptions.  Are they true?  How do you know?  Question how you think you might “know” and you may come to understand the Secrets of the entirety of the Universe and that choice is up to you.  There are precious seconds between thought and action.  These precious seconds are more valuable than any mineral or element on this Earth.  How will you spend them?  What will you then do?  Blessings of great wisdom, love, compassion and understanding fellow members of this Great Humanity.

© 2014 Jaie Hart (photo and words)


If you enjoyed reading this post, you might also like my books.   I'd be honored if you'd visit my author spotlight at:   http://www.jaiehart.com.  Blessings.

Ethereal Consciousness

I thought I knew who and what I was
Until for a moment I wasn’t
I thought I knew where and when I existed
Until a moment I didn’t

I cannot suppose what my senses perceive
Is the ultimate and definitive truth of anything
For in one single moment was I shown
All that I thought I knew
Was merely a belief or a projection
A projection that could stop projecting

I am not who I thought I was
I am not what I thought I was
I am not always where I think I am
I don’t always exist as I think that I do

When I throw my senses away
When I throw my perceptions away
When I throw my beliefs away
When I throw my thoughts away

What am I other than, I am?
For if I can observe, I must at least exist
There is one thing and one thing only that comes to me now,
I am Ethereal Consciousness

For in Ethereal Consciousness belief isn’t necessary
And location is not required
A vehicle and time can both be rendered meaningless
As can be the senses and their related perceptions

Without accepting a paradigm of provisional truths
When everything I think I know
Is willfully given up in my thoughts
I still am

Therefore, I am 
And so, I exist
I am Ethereal Consciousness
Even when I am not

© 2014 Jaie Hart (photo and words)

Painted Longing

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Amber neon scarlet sunset

Smokey plum streaked clouds chasing the sun

Cerulean blue fades to smoky gray

As the stars reach out to the last rays of light

Random sea breeze blowing fall crispy night

Faceless strangers traversing silvery pavements

Plans and dreams of the days to come

Full harvest and thanks for all they embrace

A gracious time nearly upon us all

Would that it could be this every day or every night

This sense of peace here in the darkness

Slow and haunting beautiful tune

Captivated a part of my unconscious

Reaching for something to resonate ever more with

As if the light display I had casually witnessed

Were not enough

One taste of such beauty always leaves me wanting

Just a little more, linger just a little longer

Sweet beauty moves my soul in ways, just ways

And the night, oh the night and her lights

The sky filled with stars above

The dark streets filled with bright lights below

Distracted contracted and extracting my senses

Beyond the space and time in which I now obviously inhabit

The sea breeze whispers once more

And this time I hear it

A tune meant for me

A lone soothing and mesmerizing tone so distant

Bringing back a flood of days and years

Watching water color painted skies

Contemplating dreams alive and hope taking flight

Not worried a bit with my wings now unfurled

Time to soar and perhaps yet dream

And slumber befalls me until mornings pale orange

Reaches into my heart

While the little birds singing me gently awake

Again

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© 2014 Jaie Hart


 If you enjoyed reading this post, you might also like my books.   I'd be honored if you'd visit my author spotlight at:   http://www.jaiehart.com.  Blessings.

Experiential Reality

What precisely is the basis of your experiential reality?  Do you know? As I consider my own experiential reality, I have to consider what comprises its component parts:

The 5 Physical Senses:  What I see, hear, smell, touch and taste.

    The 6^th Partially Physical Sense:  What I instinctively know (auto-biological, genetic and intuition).

    The 7^th Sense:  This is really a refined aspect of 1. And 2. Above but it comprises the less tangible but no less important concepts of sensing energy and vibration.

The 8^th Sense:  This is a further refinement of all of the above but can be compartmentalized in alternate states of consciousness and is more dimensionally oriented and not necessarily just in the physical.  I consider this sense more in tune with the level of the Spirit which is closer to the One Consciousness or Cosmic Consciousness (or 9^th Sense and there are more).

So, all of the above “senses” are part of my experiential reality but based on how I perceive what my senses are taking in and then further how I objectively or subjectively label or judge what I perceive what my senses are taking in, I have established my Experiential Reality.  Is everyone’s experiential reality the same, you might wonder?  Well, the way we humans sometimes act, it seems at some level we must believe that everyone’s experiential reality is in fact the same because we are very quick to attack someone who slights us in some way for not acting or behaving as kindly or thoughtfully as we do.  But, as you can begin to see (or will see shortly), the truth is we don’t all perceive everything exactly the same way because we can’t.  We can share some perceptions and observations but part of the way we experience the world comes from our senses and how we filter and store the data.  We sense or open to receiving data and then the mind runs its processes to look throughout our experience here in this lifetime (or even others) to find something similar with which it may come to know what it is sensing.  Based on a person’s very individualized experience, the sensory data that comes in will be compared to data taken in at some point in our past.  Simulations of the mind are then run as a result of the comparison processes in order to determine what something is that we have sensed in our experience.  This means that we can have the same inputs but our resulting findings based on our experience won’t always be the same.

I find this an interesting series of thought particularly in light of the conflict of human interactions.  We assume because hubby didn’t take out the trash that hubby doesn’t think very much of us.  We also might assume based on our mind’s findings post-simulation and analysis of data, memories, etc. that when Suzie doesn’t call us when we want her too, she doesn’t like us any more.  Okay, you get the basic idea here, right?  Not everyone comes to the same conclusion after taking in the same data sets.  What further complicates the comparison process from one human being to another is that our senses are different at various levels.  If you just take the first sense, sight.  Not everyone can see 20/20 or see with color.  So, how do you determine the same data taken in but different outputs in thought results?

You see, the data we take in is first filtered by our senses and then further filtered by our memories, perceptions, judgments and beliefs and then we determine the outcome of the data set, (e.g., because of “x” in my memory banks, this is what “this” is).  Now, to further my point lets take Vera, Chuck and Dave.  Vera’s hearing isn’t perfect  but her vision is 20/20.  Chuck is color blind but has exceptional hearing.  Dave is neither color blind nor hard of hearing.  All 3 are standing on the sidewalk at a parade.  Marching directly in front of them a brightly costumed float followed by a band is playing some kind of song loud enough for the crowd to hear.  Later, all 3 of my imaginary friends get together and compare notes on the marching band and parade.  An argument ensues about how loud the music was, how drab the costumes seemed, etc.  Each asserts his or her perception is right.  But, consider, who is really right and who is wrong?  Each can argue from their perspective just on the first physical sense alone.  But what if each also has another trigger-filter inside.  The last parade Vera attended, the man next to her had a heart-attack and died leaving her her a bit apprehensive of parades.  The last parade Dave was at, he was with his friends having the time of his life.  The last parade Chuck was at, someone launched a bag of popcorn that landed squarely on his head leaving him a bit annoyed.  How might these experiences further shape their perceptions of the parade and marching band?  Again, who would be right and who would be wrong in their experience?

Now, take this concept and look at life.  Through the first 5 senses and the mind’s operating processes, we’ve already run data through multiple filters, first physical and then mental.  We can argue on the labels that result from these filters but who is right and who is wrong?  How can you tell?  Well, the 6^th and 7^th senses can help if you are attuned to them but what if you are not?  How could you tell who is right and who is wrong?  What if the 8^th sense kicks in for one of the three and leaves one of them with a knowing that the whole event, parade, music, costumes, being there together watching it and then arguing it afterwards was just a way in which folks might better learn to understand how we take in information and experience this world? What if the 8^th sense, residing more at the level of the Spirit is very in tune with all that is and sees things not in terms of right and wrong but rather in what is beneficial and what is not to a particular person’s life path?

The more you dig into this and analyze it, the more questions arise for the careful and open observer.  When you dig in you start to realize the common conflicts humanity suffers is all based on the same data taken in but sensed and then filtered differently forming individuals aspects of experiential reality.  But, if our experiential reality is not the whole truth then what is the truth?  THAT is THE Million Dollar question and one worth asking, not others, but of the self and only the self.  For only in the still and quiet moments of reflection and understanding can we ever hope to comprehend that there exists a truth of reality beyond the limits of our Experiential Reality.  Arguing for the rightness of our Experiential Reality and, therefore, negating someone else’s Experiential Reality comes down to a choice of how much energy one is willing to expend on something potentially irrelevant and illusory.  On the other hand, through the sharing of the various Experiential Realities with the understanding of the various filters and perceptions, we could stand to gain much knowledge rather than belief based on perception alone.  This theme is key to awareness of our larger conscious existence.  It takes effort but is by far more worthy of our efforts to seek understanding that to fight to be right.

From the Journal of Metaphysics and Connected Consciousness:
http://journalofmcc.blogspot.com/2014/11/experiential-reality.html
 

© 2014 J.L. Harter

Did You Know You Have A Choice?

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One of life’s most challenging lessons is to learn to not take someone else's malware personally.  By malware, I mean the abrasive or unfeeling seeming behaviors born of false beliefs infecting the mental operating systems of a host.  Let me break it down for those of you who have a very hard time with being hurt by other people.  You’ve heard that “hurt people, hurt people,” right?  So, that doesn’t mean that hurt people are bad and that you should stay away from them.  What it means is that you must strive harder to understand that sometimes the behavior of others isn’t controllable just because you can control yourself and act civilly, thoughtfully and conscientiously.  If you can act in these ways it just means that you know how.  Not everyone does and that doesn’t make them lesser humans than you.  To expect people to behave in a way beyond their capability is really your problem and not theirs.

So, what does this mean to us when we are wincing at someone’s latest hurtful insult, condescending or sociopathic seeming behavior or other unsavory actions?  It means we need to step back and think about what is going on.  What are we doing to contribute to the situation and I’m not talking about blaming self?  I’m actually thinking more along the lines of "we made a choice to expect someone incapable to behave with common decency as we define it."  But what if the other person’s idea of common decency is different from yours?  Who is wrong and who is right?  Well, you could take the approach of telling the story to ten people and finding out if all or some of them agree with you but that still doesn’t prove the person who hurt you was wrong or right or that you were wrong or right in your expectation.  We put too much pressure on ourselves in our expectations concerning the behavior of others.  Learn about those with whom you spend time.  Understand what they are capable of and what they are not capable of and then make decisions accordingly about what you do (and not about how to make someone else behave).  You can chose not to interact with toxic and vexatious people and you can learn not to take their behavior personally in such a way that it is hurtful to you for longer than the few minutes (okay, maybe days) to seek understanding of the true reason for the interaction.

You can’t know another until you’ve seen the world through their eyes.  If you’ve not yet  successfully learned to leave your body and enter the body of another and view the whole of their lives in minute detail, there is just absolutely no way that you can accurately or fairly justify imposing your beliefs or ideals upon them.  That is a path to pain and I’ll tell you something harsh, it can be pain self-inflicted.  I know how hard that may be to hear but stick with me a moment and consider what it is I’m trying to teach you.  You are no victim and by standing in your own light and taking accountability for your thoughts, your actions, what you allow, what you expect and what you think, you take away the ability of another to hurt you.  How does that sound?  Doesn’t it sound better than continuing to stand in arm’s reach and earshot of someone who cannot control themselves and then crying loudly how hurt you are?  I don’t mean to sound callous.   What I’m intending to do is show you the way out of the mess you can sometimes find yourself in with other people.  You are beautifully unique as is every single person on the planet and no one sees things exactly the way you do, no one has the psychological aptitude that you do, no one has wounds alive and those healed the way you do.  We’re all unique and different in regards to these things.

  

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So, what I suggest is that you step back, take breath, strive to understand you, strive to understand others, set boundaries where you think it’s appropriate, speak up gently and lovingly regardless of how others speak to you and spend your days with a greater sense of peace and gratitude while you live your life.  Did you know that was possible?  Did you know you had a choice?  You do.  So, what’s it going to be?  Remain mired in pain, misery, victim-hood and drama of powerlessness or rise above it through self-love, understanding and compassion?  It’s all you baby.  The world is your oyster.  Choose.

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© Jaie Hart Photo and Words

Destroy the Ego? Why?

If you’ve wandered through any spiritual or new age works either recent or reportedly ancient, you may have encountered the concept of ego destruction. As with many other ancient concepts or ideas, I cannot help but wonder if this is yet another epic misinterpretation. Forgive me, as I mean no disrespect to any person, faith or practice as I write. I merely wish to paint the picture of an alternative perspective and one that I think is sorely needed for much greater understanding. In my book, Exploring the Conscious Self for Growth and Understanding, I explored the ego and consciousness and came to the beginnings of some conclusions as follows:

From my exploration into the topic of consciousness, the ego as the veil, I begin to come to the conclusion that the life we experience here on Earth is the result of a conscious individuation from the Cosmic Mind or One Mind in the form of ego for the purpose of a physical experience in an individuated focal point of existence in a specific time. The ego is the veil that separates humanity from the Cosmic Mind or that, to us, which is unconscious or simply, not yet known. The veil does not separate us from our Source or sever the connection to that Cosmic Mind but rather obscures it through the existence of the ego. We remain part of the entirety of the cosmos, our cells, molecules and particles gathered as a density intentionally collected in a point of focus here in this now as are all entities in existence within this frame or dimension.

The ego exists as learned scholars and wise spiritual teachers will in unison agree. Where they all may diverge is on the purpose of the ego and understanding its related consciousness. In my dissertation, I posit that it is because of the ego that we have individuated from the One Mind or Cosmic Consciousness and this intentionally formed the veil between the physical conscious world and the world of unconsciousness, ether or the ethereal realms of the spirit. It is through the process of choosing individual experience that seems to separate us from our Source at a purely physical or conscious level. We did so in order to experience creating and the receiving of the gift and the use of free will from whatever Source or Force in this universe that created us. As a unified whole, we still exist, I think, as everything in creation is interconnected as well as interdependent. Others are beginning to join this body of thought. (117)

In another of my works, So It’s Over, Now What, I explored another concept I wish to share with you, Malware:

Part of the brain’s simulation process is taking in data from the outside and bumping it up against the various memories we have stored within our minds. By comparing the data the mind makes assumptions about the data it has perceived, runs its simulations, comes up with assessments or conclusions, which then trigger various biological processes which can help keep us safe. Without memory and the ability to recall it, we might forget about that time fire burned our fingers and reach blindly into a flame without any caution. One of the challenges with memories is that they are not always exact and we sometimes store the memories of our resulting judgments from our mind’s simulation processes negatively. If we emotionally charge events such as those that are painful to us, those memories will be a bit easier to find during our mind’s simulation processes. The problem with the mind’s simulation processes it that the mind automatically assumes the data it takes in is correct, especially if within the memory it finds a similar painful outcome to a process. A painful memory may be distorted over time. Such memories may cause us to become triggered over an emotional landmine (read, unhealed psychological wound) that was based on an assumption not validated.

I refer to this as malware or a virus being introduced into our mental processing system. With malware or a virus in place in our mental processes, we may jump to conclusions without accurate data and decide that vengeance or revenge is the appropriate course of action given the data the mind has taken in, simulated, judged through the filters of all kinds of psychologically tainted experiences and then resulting in illusory emotion that seem real making someone feel a dire urge to strike out to preserve the ego or the body.

If your operating system is not in perfect health, you’ve let your emotional landmine blow somebody up but primarily, it’s you also that is hurt the worst by the blast because you were unaware of the psychological virus or malware unconsciously installed somewhere in your memory or emotions attached to a memory in your thought processing system. (47)

So, in two separate explorations shared, I’ve outlined a concept of the ego as that part of our Consciousness (Big “C” – Cosmic Consciousness) that has pointed its focus in this physical reality. I’ve also introduced the concept of malware in regard to the mental operating systems via beliefs and psychology in two of my separate works quoted above. Now think for just a moment. If we were to destroy the ego in an effort to spiritually advance, would we still be here in this third-dimensional reality? I don’t know the answer to that and I don’t know how we get to the answer of that. If you were to take a person and destroy their ego in quite literal terms, where would the “I” of them go? They’d still be here which means their individuation still exists and then, so would their ego. What I put forth is the idea that it is not bad to have an ego, it is not wrong to think in terms of “I” and it is not wrong to be an “I” in this frame. You can still progress in this frame spiritually by maintaining the “I” or the “Ego” or any of its component parts or aspects of consciousness. My explorations have led me to a path of consideration that it is actually not "the ego that must be destroyed in order for humanity to be awakened" but that it is the malware that must be discovered, rooted out or otherwise healed in order for an individual here in this frame with an “I” focus (what other focus can individuated consciousness have here in this frame?) to grow into greater awareness and improve health and well-being.

It is not the ego that must be destroyed or any part of your being that you should dislike or seek to destroy. In fact, it is the opposite. The “I” that is you is perfect in design. What is imperfect (or really, rather the challenge) is what you have within the concept of “I” that isn’t necessarily what you came here with, “Malware” in your mental operating processes. Now, I think in some cases that there is past-life residue that can permeate the “I” but even that is separate from the “I” that is you or the Ego. Even with malware operating in your consciousness, you can still step outside of it and observe it in action and experience the vast peaceful connectedness of the Cosmic Consciousness as Eckhart Tolle outlines in his work, The Power of Now. I think that we exist exactly as we are meant to. Our consciousness is never not connected (forgive me the double negative) to the Cosmic Consciousness but that we just have an individuated focus for the purpose of gaining experience. To me, this logically explains the variations of perception and belief from human to human. To me this logically unites many theories in a way that I can understand and that build a logical and necessary framework for me of complete compassion for every individuated aspect of consciousness here existing in the physical at this time.

So, the Ego is a part of you. To want to destroy a part of yourself, I think, is one of the most harmful concepts in existence. To understand any virus or malware existing within your mental operating system so that you can heal it and unite fragmented aspects of your consciousness into a loving, accepting, understanding and compassionate wholeness makes much more sense to me than destroying or surrendering the ego. You cannot be other than who you are. The true self is always there no matter what mental virus or malware has seeped into your consciousness. The true self can always observe, experience, understand, learn and grow even with the malware. Discovering the psychological wounds that are the "malware" and striving to transcend them brings greater understanding and a deeper sense of connectedness and awareness. You don’t have to destroy any part of you for that. You need only be open to understanding the framework within which you operate. Trust in your truest nature it is there right along with the “I” and the “We” of individuated as well as united Consciousness.

Article from: http://journalofmcc.blogspot.com/2014/11/destroy-ego-why.html

Sunlight Drive

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Electric blue and neon pink paints the sky as I go

Rushing in and out the cars before me on the drive

Cool is the air coming in through the window

Beethoven lilting haunting melody inside

Happy day, I think to myself

While moving clearly in chaos with one look at my surrounds

The sky is on fire with unbelievable light

The blue turning pale and brighter

As the neon pink fades to fiery orange and then gold

The dark mountain in the distance etched black

Against the rising sun and I wonder about the day

I wonder about this life

Such beauty life can hold

Such tragedy can it too

The dichotomy poignant

But so often unnoticed

How much else is there unnoticed

As we walk our days asleep

It doesn’t matter, I think to myself

Look at this sky, this magic awe inspiring sky

How could anything so beautiful exist here?

Here of all places?

And there it is again

Ugly gray free way

Dirty cars, seemingly rude and frantic drivers

Rushing to become enslaved for yet another day in paradise

All the while the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen unfolds

I feel like a child on Christmas eve just watching the display

And I look at my fellow members of humanity on the road

I wish them well, safety and love

And I pull into my destination

 

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© 2014 J.L. Harter (photo/words)

I love it when something as mundane as a drive to work turns into a creative work.  I wish I could have taken a picture of that sky.  Never before have I seen anything so beautiful.  I think the point is that we must always look towards that which uplifts us.  There is plenty here to be bothered about but if that is all you focus on, your experience will lack in amazing flavors.  There is such an amazing connection to feelings within and what materializes without.  We are all full of dichotomy as is this world.  If we spent more time reflecting on the purpose of it and what we truly gain immeasurably from it, I think there'd be less harm in this world pulling the pendulum ever-wider.  But I am a hopeless dreamer.  Blessings for a beautiful day!