Life: Ugliness and Beauty Through the Eyes of an Artist

There can be beauty in ugliness

From the outside, some may not think of photographers as artists but I say truly they are. Among my many creative outlets, photography is one. It requires an artistic mind to not only compose a shot but to think ahead about the light and shadows, the colors and over-all emotion of a scene we plan to capture and then there are of course the technical components of the capture.

So many of us take great pleasure in showing the beauty of life. We can zero in on the tiniest beautiful flower in a field of pure ugliness, focus in on the shot, take it and voila! We have now made something beautiful emerge from something not so appealing. The very picture I’ve posted with this article is an example.

California is in drought and nothing I do can keep my plants alive when I have to cut back on water (yes, I’m one of the few who actually follows the rules). So, my last remaining potted plant to survive the unending streams of heat waves and lack of water gifted me a few last tiny little flowers.

If I hadn’t stopped to look, I’d have missed its last hurrah. I’ll try to save it if I can because it’s so beautiful but it’s just not looking good. From this picture, all you see is the color, the set up and the vision I wanted you to see. You don’t see all the dead and withering blooms all around it. You don’t see anything other than the beauty I want you to see.

What you focus on, you create

Likewise, some of us wish to train our lens on the plight of those who struggle in the city, in sparsely populated or even overly populated areas. Even in an ugly city, an artistic photographer can capture beautiful lines in the architecture and compose the shot in beautiful harmony despite the surrounds.

This form of art is to me quite a spiritual endeavor. You see, we create sometimes from pure ugliness a work of beauty or we take the ugliness and show you hope. The artists of this world are often starving because of our love of the challenge of showing you something from another perspective. As a practitioner in metaphysics, it’s part of my job to show you the beauty that dwells deep within you and within this amazing and wonderful universe. It’s my role to show you how much power you have to paint your life like a skilled artist even when you’re dealing with the ugliness.  When I'm taking pictures, I'm reminded that we have the power to see from only certain perspectives or to show certain perspectives.

Color your world the way you want

We are the artists of our lives too. We can train our eyes on the beauty or the ugliness as we so choose. We can feel the emotion of it or ignore it. So many choices do we have. Just like the photographer who chooses carefully what he or she most wishes to convey with one perfectly timed shot. So too do you live your life whether consciously or unconsciously.

However you choose to present yourself, there will be those who will see your beauty and there will be those who see your ugliness. We all possess both to a degree as does this amazing world we live in. But, I remind you again, YOU are the artist and you get to choose how you show up here and which perspectives you will give life to. Thank you for showing up here. I challenge you to let that artistic part of your being come out every now and then and like a photographer or painter, capture something before you in your mind and study it a moment in silence and with appreciation. You can choose what you will bring out of that moment and the perspectives you will carry from it. It’s up to you and how creative you wish to be.

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

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.

Introducing The Journal of Metaphysics and Connected Consciousness

I'm so pleased to announce the launch of the Journal of Metaphysics and Connected Consciousness. This is a peer reviewed journal of metaphysics and consciousness studies. I extend an open invitation to my metaphysical and spiritual or even academically trained friends and those amazing souls I've not met yet interested in consciousness to join me in sharing thoughts and knowledge with what we hope will be an ever-growing audience in humanity eager to learn and grow. Contact me if you are interested or please visit the site for submission guidelines. Blessings! Click the link below and have a look!

The Journal of Metaphysics and Connected Consciousness

Conscious Awareness

-->

I am called by the name my biological parents gave me as well as the name under which I write but that is just a reference for my own personal point of focus here in the physical world.  You can label me with other words if you wanted to but that wouldn’t mean that you were accurate in your observation or perception of who or what you think I am.  In fact, you can’t know who or what I am in truth until you have that moment of crystalline clarity where you know who and understand what it is you truly are.

In your observations of those around you, you cannot see the totality of who and what they are.  You may only perceive that which you are able or capable of understanding and you will project upon them as you most need to.  You must realize that your perception is a filter from which you have experienced this world.  This means that with whatever or whomever you perceive stands before you, there will be a form of expectation in terms of what role you most need to cast someone into.  If you look even now in your world you will find you are surrounded by the industrious, the loyal, the betrayers, the theives, the wounded, the heros, the angelic, the gifted and even the tortured, dishones or villains.  But did you know that other people may not cast people in the same roles that you cast them in even if some others share your collective experience?  Did you know or even care to realize that what you experience in another, at some level, you wish to experience or you would not experience it at all?

What does all of this mean?  It does not hold the much overly simplified part of truth in this concept that says what is in you is in others so if you see bad in others it is because you are bad or if you see only good in others, you are good.  Think bigger, much bigger as this is a much bigger game you are playing in.  What you are is consciousness, what you see is consciousness, what you experience is consciousness in the manner of your own chosing.  That consciousness you observe around you existing within their own points of focus here in 3-D may be aware or unaware but it is or they are consciousness…or vibration if you will.  The entirety of the universe holds  consciousness and our points of focus that represent our physical embodiment here in the land of 3 dimensions most commonly understood (at least in general) as life on Earth and our consciousness has been limited by those who forgot who and what they truly are so they had no means readily available with which to teach you the truth. You can choose to become aware or not as is your choice and I am here merely to paint a picture of another kind.  And it is that picture that some will readily see and others will not.  That thought does not change the truth of who and what you are.  It also does not make real that which you perceive to be truth even if you “believe it.”

You can ponder and contemplate the nature of the universe and it will be a wonderful endeavor but not near as wonderful as connecting to the center most integral part of the core of what you truly are.  It would be wonderful if we could be so transparent that we changed the entire paradigm of our conscious awareness in this place in space-time perception.  But until all are aware, this is not possible entirely.  Consider the beauty and purity of what you truly are and as you consider this, know too the potential beauty and purity of all who stand before you exists regardless of roles you may have chosen to cast them in.  Seek understanding and test your belief.  Belief IS only untested hypothesis.  So, test your hypotheses (are they real and can you say so with 100% objective certainty) and then you will begin to understand not only the truth about you but the truth of the other conscious points of focus in this realm.  God bless each and every one of you as you make your journey of experience through this life.  May you gain the awareness that you came here to gain.  In love and in light, so it is.

Copyright 2014, Jaie Hart (photo and words).

The Ego is the Veil

What if the “veil” isn’t out there somewhere but rather inside of us right here in the form of our ego?  I wonder.  We talk of many things as if they are “out there” outside of ourselves and as we learn and live this life, understanding begins to dawn and we come to realize that as above, so below…as within, so without.  During times of meditation or selfless service, the veil seems to thin for us and we feel bliss or true love.  When we thin the veil of the ego, we begin to feel the truth from the core of our being without the ego arguing for pole position in this situation or that situation.

I think the veil; the thing that separates us all is the ego.   The ego and/or veil, has a perfectly good purpose.  I don’t think either was supposed to be destroyed or in anyway eradicated.   Instead, the ego and the veil it seemingly creates should be understood.  We can thin the veil thereby minimizing our egos by setting our intent, turning our ego-self over to the greater Soul-Self thereby piercing the veil and all sorts of amazing things are then possible.  Things we could never have imagined from within a thick veil of the ego can then be created positively.  Consider, if we over-identify too much with the ego in an unhealthy way, (and oh goodness are there oh so many unhealthy ways), the veil is thick around us and we are cut off from not only Source but each other as well.  The conclusion I come to is that the thicker the ego or veil, the greater the disconnection from Source and others.  This can unwittingly occur due to unnatural beliefs or other unhealthy means and can be a very challenging way to learn in this life. 

So, I come to understand that all is truly perfect as it is whether or not I judge it thickly veiled with my own ego or not.  Even the ego and the veil are perfect.  They are perfect for each soul’s journey regardless of the dimension of the ego or veil.  All things in good time come through the thinning of the veil or ego, like love, compassion and understanding.  I wish to explore this “thinning veil” concept a bit more.  I didn’t come up with this idea entirely on my own.  It was a little nugget of a puzzle I was left with as I some how managed to thin my own veil and a trusted guide from somewhere seemingly not here and yet right here left me to ponder…and ponder I will.

 

© 2014 Jaie Hart, All Rights Reserved

(photo, beautiful random google image find)

Integration

After a peak experience a few weeks back, life somehow feels quite different to me.  I wish I could put my finger on exactly what has changed or how but it’s too nebulous and wonderful for that. My thoughts this morning turn to one simple word that is not so simple at all, integration.  This dream we are living is more amazing than we realize.  My faithful readers won’t be shocked to hear me say “Life is amazing.”  I say it in just about every post and yes, it is a message I do try to impart through all my human interactions.  Peak experiences can be positive or negative depending on the emotions you choose to attach to them.  I’m certain you’ll never guess which view I hold between positive and negative.  I view all experiences as positive even when going through an experience might be particularly challenging for me in some way or in every way.  I guess I’ve realized along the path that has been my life that even though some parts of the road may seem stark, dark or painful and frightening, our experience is ever enriched by every single thing we go through.  Or thoughts about what we experience further shapes the sum total of the experience for us.

Through integration of an experience, we take in what is most meaningful to us and leave behind that which we have already learned or, well, have no further interest in learning.  I find myself in a time of integration.  The past several years of my life have been nearly indescribable in some ways.  If I wrote it all out right here and right now, I’m sure the things I’ve seen and experienced might seem quite outlandish at times, strange or even make me seem a bit, um, touched, I’ll say.  Touched is actually a very good word with many and varied implications.  Again, I’ll lean towards the positive realizing I have been deeply touched by people, visions, inspirations, nature and most important of all, love.  Maybe love is not so much categorized here in the typical sense or understanding of it.  It’s broader than that, much broader.  I could also add, all encompassing, weaving its way through every thought and vision as I went about some quite ordinary  and quite out of the ordinary seeming interactions within existence.

I have been on a very long pause, while trying to integrate all of the inputs and downloads that made their way into my psyche, my consciousness and my being.  Life is but a dream, the old childhood song goes and this is true.  But, this dream is very real based on my specific space-time orientation and I truly intend to make the absolute best of it.  I realized in my travels that I came to this place to learn and to better improve my own understanding of love in its myriad facets.  I can honestly say that I have learned so much and that I am so very grateful for this opportunity at this point in space-time to exist in the physical.  I look out into this world and I realize, just like the stars seem to shine individually with no seeming connection between them...the empty space in between is not so empty at all...just like the space between us here on Earth or elsewhere in the cosmos.  That empty space between us is not so empty and it is that thing or stuff that we cannot perceive that is the glue that connects us all.  It has nothing to do with our humanity or spirituality, it just is what it is – there...pulsing...moving...supporting and strengthening without being seen.   We just have no words or framework with which to define it.  Science begins to and Metaphysics does too.

With all these coffee-induced mental meanderings this morning and thoughts firing lightning speed in volumes and to spaces that are beyond my ability to follow each nuance an end...I am content just to be.  I’ve never before felt so ethereally and physically alive and comfortable within the confines of my own skin.  I take that as the gift of understanding that it is for me.  It’s been a long time coming.  There are many experiences you must integrate into your understanding to achieve the goals with which you set your own life plans.  Your experiences will repeat until the understanding dawns and your true understanding expands and the process just continues.  Rather than waiting for an event to feel the sentiment of achievement or satisfaction, do it now for the pure and beautiful act of living and appreciating this now.  There is no destination you suddenly get to and say, “See, there, I did it.”  None of us gets out of here alive.  At least not in the physical.  So, enjoy every breath and step on your journey and realize the gift that your life here in the physical is.  If you feel you lack love in your experience, know that you have the power to create it...the seeds have always been within you.  That spark of divinity with which you were so beautifully created gives you amazing power to enrich your own experience from inside of you and with trust and faith it will manifest without if and when you choose to make it so.

I wish you more than love and light as you journey through your lives, I wish you patience, openness of heart and mind for greater understanding too.  Know you are a beautiful miracle just as you sit there breathing and reading this little blog post of mine.  Peace be with you always and ever.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo is a fortunate random internet find - thanks google images!)