Malware in the Conscious Operating System

We’ve all got some form of what I like to call “malware in the conscious operating system.”  Malware as I use the term in this context equates to belief, which is like a computer virus or adware that infects a computer system and renders it less than optimal and only partially functioning in many ways.  Some of our beliefs are very much like a virus as they are formed and seep into our conscious operating systems unconsciously.  To understand this completely, we really need to look at these terms in a little more detail so we can clearly understand what is plainly right in front of us in terms of our daily existence.  Until it’s called out, we are unaware of the existence of a thing.  Without said awareness, the “malware” so-to-speak, lives on unfettered by understanding creating some interesting challenges for a soul to deal with.  That isn’t bad or wrong, I’ll say.  Keep in mind this is just a framework for understanding.

When we look at belief alone, we can begin to understand precisely what it means.  In fact, dictionary.com defines it as:

noun

1.     something believed; an opinion or conviction:  a belief that the earth is flat.

2.     confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof: a statement unworthy of belief.

3.     confidence; faith; trust: a child's belief in his parents.

4.     a religious tenet or tenets; religious creed or faith: the Christian belief.

A belief in a thing does not make it real or a fact. A very quick and simple example of this fact is our common belief for the sake of convenience that the sun rises and sets each day when in fact, it is the Earth that is turning.  We might even think the world turns slowly when in fact the truth is that the Earth spins on its axis at the speed near the equator at approximately 1,070 miles per hour according to starryskies.com.  So, we can believe the sun rises and sets all we want to or that the Earth turns slowly but we can see from the facts, that these things are not true.  The beliefs are not real. We have come to believe the sun rises at sets or that the Earth turns slowly from things that we have read or been told by others who held these beliefs.

There is another term I have often used, “Environmental Psychology.”  This term references the things, situations and influence of the outside world upon a person that leads to the forming of belief about one’s self, one’s life or life in general that has more of a psychological nature.  Such things might include beliefs that we are worthy or unworthy, gifted or cursed, lucky or unlucky, loveable or unlovable and the list goes on.  Again, our environmental psychology has shaped our beliefs about ourselves, other people and the world.  But if our beliefs are not true and we’ve built the entirety of our lives upon a false premise in the form of belief or holding unconsciously to a belief created by environmental psychology, how might that affect our experience of life?

So above we have defined how our beliefs are formed.  Let us get into the now and sit very comfortably with our new understanding for just a moment.  How might this new information assist us in how we live our lives right here and right now?  Well, it can help us in a great many of ways but we must first steer clear of any form of blame for the series of beliefs that we hold that limit us in any way.  We’re going to start living in the now positively because that puts our power right where it belongs, in our own hands.  So, let us be accountable for our beliefs because whether or not they were given to us or we formed them in response to environmental psychology, it is we who decide to continue to hold the belief or not.  Right?  Give that some thought.  No one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to hold that thought from your childhood where you overheard Aunt Martha or Uncle Harry say to each other you were a "this kind of child" or a  "that kind of child" that left you feeling either bad or good.  Belief is not real.  It is untested hypothesis. 

Moving right along, we can unleash an anti-virus program for the Malware running in the background of our Human Consciousness Operating System in the form of belief given us by environmental psychology.  But to do this, you must realize it will take effort, commitment, courage, tenacity and a little bit of reflection and critical analysis.  You have to find the malware first before you can remove it.  If you do not know it is there, you will never find its source and never be able to remove it successfully and will always resort to behaving as if old beliefs are facts.  So, the simple way to find them is to look for them.   

An easy way to spot them is to think about something that you really want right now in this moment.  Go ahead, think about that for a moment.  Have you got something in mind?  Good.  Hold that thought.  Now, think about what in your mind prevents you from having what you want?  Jot down all the reasons or rationales that have you believing that you cannot or do not have what you want.  Continue until you have every possible reason whether real or not real, vetted and noted.  Don't judge what you think, just write it down.  Now, take a look at your list.  I am willing to bet that there will be at least one if not many more life limiting beliefs representing themes of malware that you’ve lived with your entire life staring right back at you hidden quite conveniently in simple thoughts. 

Choose one of those thoughts on your list that you’d like to investigate further.  Take that thought and ask yourself is the thought you chose real?  Is the belief behind it real?  Can you prove that it is real?  How can you prove it is real without using an assumption and only dealing with independently verifiable facts that stand up to repeated testing with the same outcome?  By critical thinking I mentioned above, I did not mean to think of yourself critically.  I meant to start critically analyzing your beliefs with the rigor of a scientific researcher.  Is that thought or belief true?  How do you know?  If you run across a belief on your list that cannot be independently verified as definitive truth or fact, I invite you to introduce yourself to your first piece of malware.  Now, if you’d like to eradicate the malware you have to be willing to let go of the belief no matter what that means.  Sometimes letting go of a belief can be simple and at other times it can be very difficult.  Letting go of the idea of Santa Clause was not easy at first as a child now was it?  Letting go of the idea of monsters under the bed also wasn’t easy but getting to the truth and dealing with reality is how we can set ourselves free from malware.

You see, malware is a prison we commit ourselves to for many very good reasons but mostly due to lack of conscious understanding.  You may have full understanding at the spiritual level and any malware you hold may be the very premise from which your greatest life lessons are learned.  However, if you find at some point that your beliefs limit you in ways that you no longer desire, you can relinquish the beliefs that don’t bear out under the scrutiny of testing and in so doing you reveal to yourself the hiding place of the key that unlocks the door to your self-made prison cell.

Do you remember I said earlier there was no right way or wrong way to learn life lessons?  In this wonderful piece of wisdom from the Kybalion written by the Three Initiates early on in the last century, the following phrase comes:   "Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause; everything happens according to Law; Chance is but a name for Law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the Law."--The Kybalion.  There is cause and there is effect.  Your beliefs create the path from which you learn about your life.  If you find your lesson plan enjoyable, proceed without change.  If you find it isn’t and you seek greater understanding, then look to your malware, beliefs and environmental psychology.  The emerging patterns and themes will be your guide and will help you to understand you.  It’s one tiny part of the reason you are here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little bit of food for thought.  If you'd like to learn more about this topic and how the concepts of it can help you remove the obsticles in your life that prevent your growth, let me know.  I've got a course for you that can help you discover more about yourself called Exploring the Conscious Self. With the self-study guide book and work-book, you'll be well on your way to discovering a good many things about you that you may never have given thought to.  If you're interested in more details, please contact me at jaiehart@gmail.com.  Blessings!

 

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

A Life Lacking Authenticity = A Long, Dark and Lonely Road

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What is it within us that keeps us tied to someone else’s ideal of who or what we should be?  I think within us lives a primal fear from days long gone of being eliminated from the pack, shunned or otherwise humiliated for being authentically who we truly are.

I was reminded of these thoughts yesterday while out and about.  A simple thing no one but my partner and I noticed, but there was a woman walking down the street.  She wore brightly colored clothing that did not match.  It was partly cool ethnic, partly hippie and partly beach casual.  Absolutely nothing in her attire was in sync;  not the style, not the colors and certainly not the mixed prints.  She was a beautiful woman I thought, maybe somewhere in her forties.  My partner commented on her dress and wondered about it.  I let my senses go out and feel for what it might be that gave her the inspiration for her choice in attire.  Now mind you that I can only filter through my own perception of this reality I experience but what I felt was a spirit true to herself.  I didn’t sense mental illness, lacking awareness of fashion, drug-induced ignorance, color blindness or anything else.  I saw a soul comfortably walking her own way.  And you know what?  I respected and appreciated it so much.

Admittedly, I am a recovering co-dependent people pleaser.  I have lived most of my life trying to be what every one else thought I should be from an A student, to a star team player to a perfect wife and mother.  None of these things could I ever measure up to for long in the eyes of another.  Eventually I’d fail to live up to an ideal and oh the wicked lashing I’d get then.  Not from those with the expectations of me but from my own mind.  That, in my opinion sitting here this morning, is the absolute worst. 

Somewhere along the timeline of my life a feeling grew inside of my core that could no longer be ignored.  I was tired of working so hard for an unachievable perfection that I nearly imploded and in that moment was true perfection born.  I began to question why on Earth would I ever endeavor to be anything other than who and what I actually was?  I realized that there was absolutely nothing wrong with me, my choices, or my desires for my own life, (except for the minor point that I had no clue what any of that was).

As I look back on my life I see so much of the authentic real person within me who tried so hard to fight its way out of my ego’s seemingly forced invisibility.  There is such a thing as an inverse ego.  It is a very fragile one as are most wounded egos.  But something within me kept begging for cognition, awareness and the desire to throw away invisibility and anyone or anything that required that of me.

I spent years then trying on new things to see if it felt right and good and in the process, did the best I could to raise my children the way I thought best despite the frustration of the expectations of others, despite the lectures and the “you oughtta’s.”  I became a self-made success nearly in spite of myself and that’s kind of funny to me.  By sheer force of will I reduced all barriers to mere rubble so-to-speak and I forged a new path if even in pure darkness and eventually as the twists and turns of my life completed themselves, I came to the tiniest glimmer of light from deep within.  I no longer question who I am and have come to learn that I need not worry so much about what others think because they don’t define me, I don’t define me.  The part of me that would try to define me is only my ego and it is incapable.  So, I have learned that I am of two minds in a very interesting and psych-spiritual-philosophical way.  I see myself getting caught up in things and I pull myself out with rational thought and a true sense of authenticity but usually not unscathed.  But those scrapes, bumps and bruises from exploration have taught me what I am not by process of elimination.  Some of you may identify with that process of learning.  It is a very interesting path to say the least!

I rebel against the idea of dictates towards me now near automatically.  I work very hard to quiet the voice inside my head that tries still to tell me who and what to be and well, how to do it even.  I grapple and struggle with that voice that says, “No, you’re wrong, you can’t do that and you’ll never make it this way or that way.”  I struggle with that voice because I see its true origin – again, malware in the psyche.  It’s not mental illness per se.  This is more environmental psychology – along the lines of the natural effect of living in a perfectly imperfect world with individuals who did not understand a human being’s true potential.

Every single soul on the planet does the only thing they know how to do…even when they are doing things morally judged as wrong, mean, horrible, awful, insulting, demeaning, etc.  We all have choices to make in life; including how to manage the effects of our own very personal environmental psychology.

Walking your own path in life can sometimes be a lonely experience.  When you refuse to conform to societal norms or enforced conformity for the ease of others, life takes on a new meaning and the challenge that arises becomes an invitation to climb.  And by climb, I mean climbing out of the pit of other’s ideals of who you should be and embracing the true authenticity within you, accepting yourself exactly as you are and loving yourself despite any lingering traces of a voice whispering negative thoughts to thwart your progress.  The lonlier path truly is complacency, sleepy conformity and ignoring your own true inner feelings and spiritual urgings.

Being authentic means you have found your true inner voice and it will no longer keep quiet.  You can recognize the true inner voice by the way that it speaks to you so that you can feel the purity of the flow within you.  This is the voice you can begin to recognize as the higher part of the self guiding you up and out of the lower designs of the ego.  The ego is not to be destroyed mind-you, but rather understood and then transcended.  Old paradigms of thought and outmoded methods of activity can be overcome when you grab hold of those few precious nano seconds between judgment, emotion and action.  The span is so short from a human timeline perspective that if you remain asleep and unaware that such times are a gift in which you can step out of normal reaction and into, instead, understanding and thoughtful response, you might miss a beautiful opportunity to truly see yourself just as beautifully as you are.  It is absolutely amazing the way you can truly feel living life honestly from a place of authenticity.

Why does this matter, I often write in my posts.  I want you to think for just a moment about why this matters.  If you live the life someone else designs for you – even if that design comes from your own ego spurred on by environmental psychology and unconscious malware, this is a recipe for a very unhappy and unfulfilling life.  I don’t want that for myself certainly and I don’t want that for you either.  I can pretend I am a teacher of sparkling and impeccable thoughts and actions but that would be a lie.  I teach from the heart by real experience that I have been through, that I grapple with and that I succeed at if even painfully sometimes.  I like to find meaning in the ugliness and take it as a personal challenge to find some shred of beauty in it no matter how long and hard I must contemplate, reflect and adjust my sometimes-myopic vision.

This is one incredible ride…life.  It is meant to be lived from the heart and soul of you. When you can determine that which most prevents you from living life in joy from the truest center of your being, everything changes from the mundane to the extraordinary.  You become (once again) extraordinary and the thought of that makes me smile.  Blessings for your journey beautiful dreamers.  Find that thread of authenticity fighting within you for conscious cognition.  Give it a tug with a smile on your face and be willing to deal with all the stuff that falls out.  It’s that “stuff” that you must wade through and clean up to get to the good stuff in life.  Be fearless and courageous.  You were born of the stuff of the stars that shine so very brightly.  Live your life like you mean it straight from the heart.  Much love and light always and in all ways. And, So, It Is!

 

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© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo and words)

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my books.  You can find them at http://www.jaiehart.com or Amazon Kindle and even in Nook.  Bless!

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