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.

No Problem

Why does it seem that we have so many problems in our lives to deal with? It sometimes seems we have way more to contend with than we can possibly handle and this can result in anxiety, stress, insomnia and even depression.

Giving considerable thought to these symptoms and their multiple and varied origins and knowing how within our Consciousness we create, I wonder if it is just something as simple as “we’ve got it all wrong.” We watch how our lives are supposed to be from television, books, movies and even what those around us represent to us as the best case scenario for living and finding happiness. But what if we realized the truth that these things are only idealized potentials and that if we strive for someone else’s ideal of the perfect life or happiness, we may actually find ourselves quite disheartened? That isn’t what we’re here for.
 
 We haven’t come all this way in our evolution and development to settle for someone else’s perfect version of what our reality should be, I think. Look around you and see what this approach is getting us. Every day we’re becoming more aware of the growing symptoms of personality disorders. Even the DSM V sites more psychological disorders today than ever before. The DSM is, “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) … widely known as the bible of psychiatry and psychology,” (n.p. Tartakovsky, psychcentral.com).
 
Now, having cited this I realize that perhaps this knowledge is simply a part of the deepening of our understanding due to the increasing availability of information more quickly. However, certain disorders or behaviors still seem to be on the rise such as those in the anti-social or sociopathic category. But what if we’ve still not even scratched the surface of the true problems that ail humanity? Consider this if you will, I have posited before that the Ego is the Veil. Meaning that I lean towards the theory that our egos are that part of our consciousness that meets physical reality. If there is a bigger part of our Consciousness that remains not in physically manifested three-dimensional reality, then maybe behavioral issues stemming from the ego are an unintended (or unconsciously intended) consequence of our being here, generally speaking. 

 So, if we begin from this premise that the ego is the reason we are in the physical, and when in the physical, we don’t understand the whole of our true Conscious capabilities, I could understand how some could wax either more sensitive with the realization of the possibility or its opposite, not sensitive at all in the absence of the realization of the possibility. I see all of these things as coping mechanisms related not just to life and our experiences from childhood but that sometimes the level of discontent and ill-behavior grows simply from our lack of understanding of what it is that we are.

So, we have an ego that projects our focus here where we are physical, experience the physical, encounter egoic emotion and if we remain aware, we can still experience the ethereal. Now, those of us still engrossed in entertaining that the physical is the ONLY reality may never awaken to the ethereal components of our larger Consciousness and they may begin to label, make-fun of or find other ways to hide out in pure science or psychological bad behavior alone to prove their own ego’s version of reality and all that will seem to do is perpetuate this ill behavior we so often see demonstrated within humanity. I’m a compassionate soul and have to believe there is a reason for this behavior, for this seemingly limited thinking and why some of those in the know may find our make-up and lack of awareness quite convenient. 

 I’m not going to dive into conspiracy theories here. I dare not put any good energy towards that. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of those with supreme knowledge and those who are lost to that knowledge (at least temporarily). What I do know is that there is a collective of memories, thoughts and knowledge available to humanity. At any time one can merely observe their own thoughts to realize we are not so simply defined. We cannot even completely define consciousness itself unless we begin to break it down into very small, agreeably identifiable component parts (we can’t do that yet, at least not entirely). Even if were able to identify all of the component parts, due to the process of individuation of focus (materialization of our consciousness in the third-dimensional world), the challenges of living we’ve all been through in our own unique ways would have us view the findings only through the perspective of our own life experience. The way we are generally made up would have us believe our own perceptions as truth whether or not that truth was provisional.  

I have learned in life that we can experience so many problems, challenges and pain as we try to make it through the day living up to ideals presented for us to hold and believe in. But what if the things in our lives are not problems to solve at all? What if that concept or framework of operation is the problem and prevents us from truly knowing ourselves and the beauty that life has to offer? What if we fearlessly engaged in serious inquiry of the origins of our own beliefs, understood them and then realized there is no need to fight for someone else’s version of reality or even defend our own? What if you discovered that the way things are here as we see and experience them right now is just exactly the way they are supposed to be? What if you knew you had a choice in terms of labeling, judging, hating, dividing, conquering or accepting, holding compassion, understanding, allowing and appreciating the diversity of life here and the full scope of potential experiences you have in order to better understand your life lessons? What would that do to your problems? Would that put them in a different category that might cause you to react differently towards?

Would you begin to see the behavior in others that drives you mad is not the impetus for you to engage in a campaign to change others but to seek greater understanding and wisdom within yourselves? The irritating factors that occur to us from others does not exist so that we can allow the frustration to take up residence within our heads to our detriment. On the contrary. They are messages only to remind us that we have a choice in how we view things, even if we have to struggle a few days to gain a more positive perspectives.

So much is possible in this world. If we could shift our perspectives we could endeavor to engage in more richly rewarding discourses and interaction with all of life here on planet Earth…here in the Earth School. We could see the world with new eyes, hear the music of life with new ears and feel the truth of everything with a sensory perception unaided by limited psychological labels for experiences. We could transform misery into beauty in the span of a heart-beat if we but took the time to learn how to stand in the center of the light of our own beautiful Consciousness and realize that we are one in so many ways. Or, we could just continue with the drudgery, the pain, the bleak and stark expanses of some of the roadways of life. The choice of perspective belongs to each of us alone. 

That’s the beauty of life I suppose. There isn’t really a wrong way or a right way. I think being here at all has the consequence of symptomatic expression of “malware” we’ve had unconsciously installed in our minds from very early on. I’m referring to the beliefs that were created about ourselves and the world that came from outside in and remained resident in our psyches without our understanding it was that very same "malware" that we have always operated from. That "malware" skews our vision and makes the truth awfully difficult to perceive definitively. I guess maybe that part of the fun is learning to spot our false premises and then striving to transcend them. It is in the journey that we find our greatest rewards and not necessarily in the attaining of a destination, thing or whatever it is you can think of.

In a way, we are already very Consciously Aware and Awake, we just have chosen not to acknowledge that yet or maybe we haven't yet learned how to remember that fact. Each in his or her own time, I continually remind myself and remind myself with much gratitude. I love life and humanity. The beauty and diversity of existence here is just beyond words. It’s miraculous, amazing, inspiring… even on those dark nights or during dark seeming times. Things change, we always grow and everything is forever in motion. It's not a problem. It's just life.

Referenced Work:

Tartakovsky, M. “How the DSM Developed: What You Might Not Know” Psychcentral.com Web.


© 2014 J.L. Harter, PhD


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