A Split Decision and Peace

I had occasion to visit a local theme park a few days ago.  Aside from letting my inner child out with much excitement, I made an unexpected discovery.  I’ve never been one for amusement park rides or fast-moving roller-coasters that take you way up high away from the Earth’s normal pull on your being and let you free fall quickly back down.  There is a feeling in it that I just never cared for.  To describe it might sound strange or to some of you, not but its that tightening sensation at the core of my being during free fall that I just never ever liked.  I don’t care for the feeling of gravity forces on me at any rate of speed.  I guess I just never found any joy in it.

Well, upon my recent visit to the “Happiest place on Earth,” I went on one of those rides…not a big one or a fast one, mind you, but one with a bit of a drop.  This time as I  approached the few seconds before the drop I knew would be coming, instead of tensing up, I let go.  I let go and let whatever would happen, happen.  The rise in the darkness came and then the drop and I relaxed so fully into the experience of it I felt near out of body.  Time slowed in my consciousness and I felt a very familiar sensation.  It was nearly just like that moment in the void during my NDE (Near Death Experience) where there was no motion, no body to tense, no light, no anything but just me, my consciousness and a presence.  Well, that is what I felt this time.  I let go so fully without any concern.  I found myself for mere seconds in a state where nothing in my life held any significance for me and that meant, there was nothing for me to fight against.  In that moment "life" as I knew it didn’t hold significance because I knew whether I tensed up or relaxed, all was going to be as it was.  It needed no interference from me focused or not and it would go on as it was meant to.  It's hard to put the exact sentiment into words.

When I reached the bottom of the drop, my senses came back to me with the sounds of rushing water and the screaming of exhilaration from the children I traveled on the ride with (grown up ones too) and I just smiled from somewhere deep inside of my being.  I knew what was coming, I knew I didn’t care for the feeling of gravity pulling me back to Earth but I enjoyed it truly for the first time in this life.  Now, I’ll not be setting my sights on bigger and faster roller-coasters for that just isn’t my way.  I don’t derive joy from getting a fix of my own adrenaline.  Every day life does that enough for me, honestly.  But, I did feel a sense of triumph.  Not for making it through the amusement park ride but rather for a moment of letting go so completely that I felt myself disappear into a place of pure peace, quiet and freedom.  I can’t explain it any better than that.

It was a perfect day in every other way but in this moment, I found the day to be extraordinary and it took the least amount of effort.  It took only a split second decision to shift my focus from a point of resistance to a point of complete and total surrender and I have to tell you that it freed a part of my psyche in a way I can’t say I’ve enjoyed much in my life.  Now, I don’t intend to run around the rest of my life extrapolating tiny moments of decision making to give myself a little buzz of triumph but I will hold gratitude for every moment that I am granted and have wits about me enough to recognize that in much of this life I am given a choice in terms of how I will experience something.  That, to me, is an epic outcome to a simple and yet at times very complex, adventure…Life.

Copyright 2017, (photo and words), Jaie Hart

An Inadvertent Path Amidst a Dream

What a strange and interesting time this seems to be in our world.  I cannot begin to scratch the surface of all of the happenings of this world without wanting to brush it all away and dig right down deeply into the core of what seems to ail all of humanity.  It seems to me, at the heart of all of our woes lies this insidious subtle and often blatantly active fear.  Fear seems to be at the heart of everything going seemingly wrong today.  But what on Earth can we do?  Honestly, nothing.  As weird, heartless or oblivious as that may seem, there isn’t really anything to fix “out there.”

If we want to get to the heart of what ails humanity at this time, we need look no further than our own backyards. For there, we will find a rich universe from which we may draw our own conclusions about where we are, and why we are and what we might do with significant impact.  Translated simply – we can fix ourselves but we can’t really fix anyone or anything else.  I’ve written often before of the path of understanding as the mechanism through which we can at least learn to hold compassion for ourselves and compassion for each other no matter what state or place we find ourselves in.

We are plagued with this life-preserving ability to compare, contrast and quickly discern all that is seemingly bad around us.  It really does help us make decisions in a moment about what we should stick closer to and what we should move ourselves very far away from.  But, what if we judge wrongly even in our own perception at a time where any form of truth is truly obscured?  This would be the case in terms of undetected negative environmental psychology that truly dictates the bulk of our perception of our many experiences in this world.  I’m learning of late that there just is no way for us to transcend our psychology.  We cannot fix the core of who we are.  We just aren’t able and besides that, there isn’t anything to fix.  We can come to greater understanding of all that triggers us and if we can at least become aware of the fact that our thoughts, emotions and reactions in any given moment are just that –  triggers – what an amazing and monumental leap on our own personal journey does that bring us.  Better yet, diving into the deep and endless pool of those triggers to better understand, deeply love and infinitely appreciate our truest self is beyond amazing.

Our very lives these days are so interlaced with psychology, superficial understanding coupled with time honored traditions in human behavior that it is difficult at best to realize who is reacting versus who is intentionally responding to whatever it is they face in a moment.  Reaction and response may seem like two things of the same core motivational essence but that couldn’t be any more over-simplified.  I write much about this topic in so many different ways and in so many different perspectives.  Why?  Well, it is hard to discern the space we are reacting from in earnest.  In mindfulness we learn that our human nature is to think thoughts incessantly, ascribe emotions to those thoughts and that triggers us into reaction.  But, what if we truly could learn to allow all those thoughts and their associated emotions and just let them be without judging them or ascribing further insult to seeming injury?

Well, we can do that.  But, if you want to do that in order to release yourself from states of too much worry, too much pain and too much unhappiness, you really need to learn what mindfulness is and you need to be open to embracing higher understanding.  Again, translating simply – awareness through understanding is key to relieving you of all that mentally ails you.  This you can do if only you opened your mind, heart and soul to it.

But on the other side of this very complex coin of human existence, we have a very rich, seemingly unreachable aspect of our being…some call it Spirit or Soul, some consider it mind or consciousness.  The deeper aspects of our being begs greater understanding for there we can grasp the essence of the impetus for our manifestation in this frame, within this beautiful and endless seeming dream.  We are, at best, what we most chose to be and how we most wish to embrace it – whatever “it” is.  There is truly nothing to do to “fix” or save ourselves or each other from in life.  Life is as it is and it is only our lack of understanding that drives us to our territorial desire for the many and varied manifestations of suffering hidden by our own design.  When you understand you free yourselves a little and then a little more to move through this conscious dream awake and ever more aware.  So, we need not worry so much about the state of things.  It is better yet to remain ever curious, ever hopeful and ever compassionate with self and the whole of life.  Take heart this dream – your life – has purpose.  You matter.  This dream matters.  Take the lessons to heart and love yourselves even more deeply.  Blessings for higher love and greater understanding.

 

© 2016 Jaie Hart

Presence of Moments

Cool breeze invited in, darkness slowly turning to light, warm coffee in hand, Beethoven soothing the edges in the background and good morning star shine!  It is so quiet in this moment.  I just finished a little mindfulness meditation and that blanket of cool, calm presence is still with me.  I appreciate deeply, moments such as these where I can truly step out of a stressful seeming life and embrace the calm stillness that can be found self-contained within my being.  That’s a shock to me to think knowing the mountains of stress that I normally carry.  But, I’m learning to set it down when I need to without running away in panic and fear.

My thoughts drift in and out of cohesiveness.  A part reaches into the depths of all that is known and then unknown, another reaches into the past and yet another reaches into the future.  All experience is contained here within me and all experience pulses seemingly outside as well.  As above, so below, is it said in books from antiquity.  What is within is also without as you gaze into the creative comparisons of celestial constellations and the human eye, the brain, our cells and more.  Isn’t it curious how in that very moment you have a single desire to seek connections and then you find them everywhere?  Is that desire seeking a new thought for something to grab hold of or is it merely a memory and a knowing of what truly already is?

The building blocks of light and life are so perfectly beautiful that it just doesn’t seem to matter.  Within us there exists in any given moment a mass of  violent destruction and also the moments of gentle renewal and beautiful creation.  I look out into this world and I see the same.  Dichotomy juxtaposed instantaneously with a thought, recognition of sorts at a level beyond my normal consciousness.  I could while away the hours contemplating and deeply so but a little tug and the needy tendrils reaching into the ether come back, calm, peaceful ready and willing to be silently entertained as I watch the life teeming all around me.  So, no thoughts are so craftily construct today with big questions and hinting at answers.  I’ve said all that I needed to say for now and for a while I shall content myself with a tactile existence relishing the sensations of cool air, warm coffee and exhilarating notes tacked together so artfully.  And breathe softly and deeply as the rays of our brilliant white-hot sun reach into and through a misty blanket of cooling low pressured clouds.  That’s enough for this moment, for this absolutely perfect moment.

© 2016 Jaie Hart (photo from skymania.com)

A Moment in an Ordinary Life

Crystalline shards of champagne colored light pierced the Earth and the mists of a gray sky slips silently into a pure sea of cerulean blue.  Trance-like I was struck by the awe and beauty in the midst of a very ordinary morning drive.  Curious, there was a human form still and prone on the sidewalk.  Draped she was, in black and red coat and now very crumpled hat near a walker now crashed against a wall just beyond the sidewalk.  My heart slipped into a less bright space at the tragic sight.  A lone policeman entered my vision, obviously called to her rescue, thank goodness.  Sigh and swift breath in and the trees caught my attention again as I flowed with the traffic along the road like a metal moving stream.  Black car weaves in and out of the lines while blue car swerves to miss something in the way.  The pavement sparkles in morning’s first light in between dancing shadows looming large still as we all go.

In unison we move oblivious to each other and I find that ever more curious still.  There is such diversity crashing into the breath of one single moment here but no one seems to notice it.  It seems sometimes I stand like a still figure in the frame of a slow motion movie where all is swirling, moving and chaotic.  I breathe in slowly and then let go.   I follow the dance of dark and light in some chain-reaction motion and commotion that never seems to stop and then I wonder how it is I could feel so distant wrapped in a warm cocoon of silence as all around me stirs.  It must be the achievement of my 86^th day of meditation without break that allows me now to step out of the stream and witness from both within and without.  Every more curiouser my consciousness grows

What an interesting sensation this space between heartbeats,; between breaths and choice?  Would that I could stay here but I know myself all too well.  In just a moment here or there an emotion will sweep in undetected until it is by far too late and I’ll slip out of this quiet space and flow again in the stream of life looking back and remembering the silent stillness of the conscious pause I was some how able to take.  I’ll be glad for the moment’s peaceful pause and the infinite strength and peace that it brought me.  Life is chaotic, agitating, invigorating and ultimately wonderful.  We just need to continually remain open to the unexpected.  Maybe decide to allow new experiences and ever greater compassion to set into our souls along with an ever increasing capacity for understanding what is with a keen awareness that does not resist the flow.

I pause again now as my thoughts wish to settle into the warm sunny dance of these beautiful rays of morning light.  It’s just another day in an extraordinary moment of an ordinary life.

© 2016 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Rays of the Light of the Sun

Imagine, if you will, the sun…bright beautiful light with rays spilling all about in every direction.  Remember as a child, you might have liked to draw it with your yellow and orange crayons, paint it or just sit on the grass and feel it.  Consider for a moment the sun, not as a bright continually combusting and radiating star but a metaphor for our Conscious existence.  Think about it and consider the saying, “We are all one.”  Go back now, imagine the sun as if it were the ultimate Big “C” Consciousness radiating in all of its glory.  Consider now for a moment, each of us tiny humans with our little “c” consciousness…The microcosm of the Macrocosm.  We are each like a ray of the Sun’s light.  We emanate from the same Source and we travel and move – Consciousness in Motion!

It is a simple metaphor but you can pick any other as you may choose – branches of a tree, rain drops and the ocean.  It doesn’t really matter how you choose to consider it as much as it matters that you do consider it.  Because, until you do, you may go on in your lives not understanding or realizing the impact you have on the Whole.  You are a bright and beautiful part of the Whole, traveling outward, experiencing Consciousness in motion from the Source Consciousness of our Origins.  We are not small egoic only, self-serving, narcissistic humans.  We may at times behave in ways incongruent with that statement but that is only behavior and can be relegated to malware installed in the consciousness operating system.  We are more than that, all of us, despite how we engage here with our consciousness.  We are rare and precious, driving always to persevere, that drive to go, that impetus to reach and grow.  We are amazing and we don’t even know what we are.  We just live day in and day out never giving it a thought.

It’s okay, really.  You don’t have to think about it but if you did, if you realized what it is you truly are, how might you perceive things and respond or react differently to all that you see and experience?  If you knew the stranger before you was in fact your brother or sister, traveling just like you are, would you be so quick to judge or to cause harm?  Would you have the strength of spirit to strive more towards inquiry than belief alone?  You could if you so chose or you could not if you so chose.  Free will dictates you can do as you see fit here in this realm including the violation of the law of Free will if you wanted.  In the end, it’s mostly you that suffers the fate of that violation because in violating another’s Free will, you violate your own.

Going back to the metaphor of human beings existing as beautiful rays of light from the Sun, we all shine.  We cannot shine more by going after or attempting to merge with or thwart the other shinning rays you encounter on your Conscious journey.  It just doesn’t work like that.  What helps you to shine ever more brightly is the realization that you are a star, your light is bright and when you appreciate just how much this is so, you keep your own light pure, pristine and sparkling as you journey encouraging the fellow rays (humans) to keep on shinning, keep on traveling in the light.  Even if you meet with dark and ominous storm clouds on some strange planet you’ve no idea how you encountered, you are still a beautiful ray of light, energy and Consciousness that never dies.  Your light and energy cannot ever be extinguished, only transformed.

Did you know you could transform even now?  Did you know that you could awaken to the myriad of choices before you in every 3^rd dimensional breathing moment you exist here right now?  So many choices have you and despite how you may feel in a moment, never are you alone–millions upon billions and trillions of rays of light emanate from the Sun of which I speak.  We reach and shine, that’s just what we do…it’s what We do.  So, do what you were meant to do at the moment of your choosing and just shine…shine like the Sun…be the bright and beautiful Consciousness that you are just because you can.

 

© 2015 Jaie Hart

With Thousands of Thoughts In Your Mind, How Do You Support You?

The average human mind thinks thousands of thoughts a day (estimated to be somewhere between 12 – 60K). If you could sift through them and bucket them, I wonder how many might truly come from the outside world in the form of negative judgments or beliefs creating more internalized thoughts of unworthiness and how many of them might be truly supportive, uplifting and self-loving.   I suppose there is no real way to definitively know but I think there is a way for us to tell and that is by how we feel should we become quiet enough and give ourselves permission to reflect.
 
Our thoughts race sometimes seemingly at the speed of light. If so many of those thoughts go through our minds unconsciously attaching emotions in the negative, we could end ourselves up in a really bad place without having any clue as to how we got there.

The way to slow down this unconscious process is to become very quiet in a moment alone and spend some time just noticing the thoughts that race, the thoughts that swirl, the ones that stumble and fumble through to our conscious cognition in the absence of any judgment. If we could find a few moments here and there to do this one thing and learn to dispassionately view the thoughts as not truly “us” per se but a by product of the ego functioning in part the way it was designed to in full acceptance of it just as it is, I think we might better be able arrive at a more pleasant present focus.

In the present, we need not worry about our thoughts or their feelings but just let them be and allow ourselves to think them realizing their origins may not have anything to do with us. With negative thoughts in particular, this is really important. A beautiful soul born on planet Earth would not come to carry the weight of negativity without purpose. So, why do we carry the heavy weight of our negative thoughts in the absence of understanding?

To give ourselves permission to reflect in the absence of judgment, gives us the power we need to create consciously and positively in our lives. We’re not necessarily taught this but it is one of the ways we can learn to better support ourselves. So why not begin to support ourselves by allowing greater understanding?

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

The Now Age: It's Likely Not What You Think.

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This post represents the expansion of a thought I shared with a friend recently.  But that exchange got me to thinking and I like to think.  I also love the experience of living my life the best way I can.

I have been on a quest of sorts for I don’t even know what and for so long that I can’t really even remember when or why it began.  But I remember when it ended and I felt bad a few moments thinking, “Wow, all of this time I was energized by the spiritual quest, by the journey of searching and the action of seeking. So, now what?”  Now what, indeed!

One thing that never entered my mind was that one day I’d find the answers I was searching for right about the same time I grew so weary of a fruitless seeming ever illusive quest.

Well, I guess it wasn’t entirely fruitless.  What I learned is that when we finally grow tired of our searching for something outside of ourselves, we begin to understand that what we seek, we truly already have.  We just didn’t know how to realize it or find our way inside long enough to see it.

New Age thought spurred my quest sometime ago I will readily admit.  Honestly, I’m very grateful to the New Age thinkers for they brought us new ways to look at ancient wisdom as we contemplated our present day experiences but something always seemed to be missing or lost in the translation.  After further thinking, feeling and just letting the thoughts within me expand, I realized in absolute fullness and joy that the quest was over.  But now I think its time for a paradigm shift of sorts. 

I think the conclusion that I come to is that the genre formerly referred to as “New Age” has actually come and gone.  I also think that the “New Age” is in the process of being replaced by the "Now Age."  The “Now Age” is so much more important than the New Age.

Let me explain why.  The Now Age requires no guru, no dogmatic approaches to anything really or trying to embrace some doctrine you can't really warp your head around.

All the “Now Age” requires is being very present in every moment of your life and in all that you do. Being present in the fullness of the Presence of our Consciousness will bring us that which we most sought outside of ourselves. It's one of those subtle little miracles you stumble onto when you finally stop listening to the voices outside of your head, tune into the true feelings within and listening with all of your being.

The time is now.  Be here.  Be present in your effervescent numinous illuminating Conscious Presence.   Pretty simple huh?

Special thanks to all of my wonderful friends and my partner for all of the thought-provoking discourse that brought one part of my journey to a wonderful end.  How often can you say something ends wonderfully? 

I’m off to some different thoughts all-together.  So, enjoy the journey and be ever so present within it.  Just breathe, notice the pretty flowers sometimes, the way the sun etches everything in beautiful golden light or the song of our winged friends some time.  You’ll then begin to comprehend what the Now Age entails.  Blessings.

 

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© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo and words)  Now Age concept was coined by my partner, Dr. Liam Leonard. J

I and the Moment Are One

Cloudy skies and the sun paints the edges of the clouds in silvery golden light.  My consciousness stretched out wide again, I’m opening to whatever thoughts may come.  I am not disappointed for they do come but not in their usual frenetic cacophony but more of a peaceful swirl of curiosity and questioning.  As I notice the motion of them inside, just one begins to rise to the surface:  What do you believe in?  I let the thought linger in the present and reflect upon it without trying to think too much about it.  From my studies in psychology and consciousness I could tear apart most things I believe.  But I don’t give much credence to my beliefs as I see them for what they are, thousands and thousands of thought forms existing within my head as untested hypotheses or provisional truths stated or derived as fact from the outside world of my own perspectives.

There is a feeling within me growing in response to my own question and I relax and let it culminate into conscious cognition.  It comes then, the response:  I believe in this moment.  For in this moment, there is both nothing and everything from the microcosm to the quantum whole of all of reality.  And then I wonder a little more as I let my thoughts gently float into and out of my awareness.  More questions than answers I presume as a measure of my learning and another becomes more clear:  How do you know that this moment exists at all?  I consider these questions and answers reflect in the form of feeling rather than thinking and the swirling then stops.  The thoughts now still have me reaching with my senses again.  I can only seemingly know a moment by the way I sense the moment, by the way I am present in that moment but that brings me no further certainty that it exists definitively outside the scope of my perception.

I’m not the first to wonder of such things and I certainly won’t be the last.  But I like this mental meandering of sorts and its accompanying ever-expanding feeling and so stay with it a bit more wondering where it will lead me.  I trace with a glance, a bank of clouds moving a little faster and lower on the horizon than the larger and darker ones nearer the sun.  I watch the city come fully awake and am wandering amongst a concrete jungle.  So many thoughts beg for attention and I quell them focused on one breath in this moment.  This moment to me is very much like a wave on a sea.  When we are in the midst of a moment there is no before or after, there is no past or future and there is no worry or care.  I like how that feels but it doesn’t answer my question or address my seeming belief in the validity of a moment.  Perhaps a moment isn’t a moment at all but a collective of moments woven by chains in hours and minutes or days and years.  I cannot say with any definitive certainty, for who am I to say anything definitive or certain about anything even my own measure of consciousness? I think I am awake and driving my car down the busy highway.  I see that there are buildings and people walking.  I see there are other drivers driving and still I can’t decide so with certainty that they exist.  I perceive something but a perception, like belief, is not a fact.  It seems so, both – perception and belief.  They seem like truth but time and time again are we proven wrong by science, experience or our own first hand observation from a much higher level of consciousness we may find ourselves momentarily engaged in.

I think the moment is as others have described and being fully present within it is like a surfer on top of a wave, there is no more waiting for it to come or considering it after, there is only the ride in the moment it has become manifest.  To think about those moments awakens a part of our experience that takes the pure and pristine beauty of a moment away.  Every moment is precious whether here, gone or yet to come.  All of time is an expression of our own perception and I’ve had these experiences where time has stopped or sped by extraordinarily fast.  Does it stand on its own outside of my experience?  I could easily argue both yes and no.  Did yesterday exist?  In my perception it did at least as my perception of my own memories tell me.  Will tomorrow exist?  Maybe. I don’t know if it will.  Does today exist?  I think that it does as I hear the wind chimes outside playing a wind facilitated beautiful tune, while the leaves shiver and shake in the sea breeze and I hear the birds singing as well.  But I must admit that each of these things is filtered through the perception that is the way I see the world.  Who is to say that I am right?  What if I’m wrong?

How does one master true understanding then of anything when all we think we know is based only on perception or belief?  I believe in this moment, I thought only moments ago.  But there are other moments I believed in too and now they are gone except in the confines of my conscious memory.  What is more real in my consciousness, that which stands before me or that recalled from memory?  If I go with feeling alone there is no answer and my feelings seem to react the same to memory or “real-time.”  But what is real-time but a moment in motion?  I cannot say even what a moment is or whether it truly exists or doesn’t but I exist as I observe it.  Am I separate at all then, in my consciousness from this moment?  Am I separate at all then in my consciousness from my perceptions or beliefs?  Again, I could answer both yes and no.  But something doesn’t sit right with the feeling within me.

If I throw out all of my thoughts and just be, I am content, sensing an ever expanding existence of consciousness of the big “C” kind.  Is that the Moment?  Are we creating them, the moments?  Do they exist in our memory, our souls or our Spirits or are we sitting in some etheric movie theatre somewhere…Elsewhere watching some form of educational movie we call life?  From a momentary experience I suppose it doesn’t matter whether when I am asleep I dream or I perceive myself awake even if by other standards I am still very much asleep.  My logical mind grasps for the themes, the patterns and the constants and there is only one and that one is most easily expressed as “I.”  Anything in this world or the next may follow that one tiny little letter in our very short alphabet that has meaning beyond that which 100,000 dictionaries, encyclopedias or academics of all sorts could define.  We can all describe a piece from our learning and from our respective perspectives but how much closer does that bring us to understanding a Moment?  I think the Moment is aligned with I.  I and the Moment are one in a way that may make no sense at all.

But it’s fun to toy with my thoughts as the leaves glow brilliant green on the trees and the clouds give way to cerulean blue skies and every single line and angle in my perspective is etched in both dark and light.  Now, in this moment, I have found yet again a tiny little space of peace in having no answers but questions, curiosity with coming knowledge and feeling.  What would a moment be without a feeling?  That, I suppose is a question for another time. 

May you find joy in your life’s moments for all are truly precious in whatever manner you perceive them to be.  May the light brilliantly shine upon the dark shadows of all of your perceptions and beliefs.  In time illumination comes for those who know it will and already has.

© J.L. Harter (photo/words)

Courtesy of the Journal of Metaphysics and Connected Consciousness.

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)

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

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