Dapplied Light - Life in Motion

   

Among some of my favorite things of all time are dappled light streaming through branches and tree leaves onto a road, a field, the grass, within the forest and well where ever.  There is something mesmerizing about the movement of the light and dark, almost like you’re watching the tree but not the tree.  The thing giving shade and it’s oxygen so readily creates beautiful swaying dappled light when the sun is just the right place in the sky. 

There are simple things in life that don’t cost you much to notice but when you do, it can be a breath of fresh air or a moment of calm appreciation in the midst of a stressful day.  Having a love for photography, you can’t help but also love the play of dark and light on the subjects in your composition.  One of my favorite pictures was taken at Huntington Beach at sun set.  I saw a suffer come out of the water and he walked parallel to the water and I sat there with my camera waiting patiently for that moment he walked dead center in front of the sun that had already seemingly splashed down into the water.  I snapped so many pictures in rapid succession determined to get at least one good one.  It wasn’t the best photograph I ever took but the excitement of waiting for the shot I wanted was exciting.  Now, the dark and light in that photo was amazing.  Life and light moving and doing what it does while not everyone notices is an amazing way to spend some quiet time in my opinion.

This world just seems to move faster and faster the older that you get.  It reminds me of those long and hot summer days as a child when it seemed like it took forever for your friends to get done with breakfast, get dressed and come out to play.  The days were long and filled with laughter, the smell of cut grass, snacking on fruit in the back yard snagged from a nearby tree.  Sitting on the grass under the dappled light with your friends is amazing.  I think those days when you were small and there wasn’t as much to occupy your time, the Earth days seem to move so slowly.  When we’re grown up and doing grown up things, working, child rearing, family caring, and more, time moves fast.  I guess it’s all perception.  Time moves slowly when we’re grieving or missing someone but moves so fast when we’re caught in the moment having the time of our lives with family or friends.  Perception can be a funny thing depending on which side of the dark or light you choose to stand upon in any given moment.

If I sit back now, some of my earliest memories where about the play of light streaming through a window, dust particles creating sparkles in the very air, trees, flowers, or even curtains bringing a dichotomy of shadows and light to change the view and add to the movement of a moment. When you’re still and watching, it’s fascinating how light and dark are part of the same thing.  I think about people in this frame.   We like to think of people as all good or all bad or maybe we think of ourselves that way.  I’m about to begin my 60^th decade on Earth and while I’m generally a good citizen, friend, caring family member or member of my community, I am far from perfect.  Within me is both dark and light…good things and bad things.  I think the same is true for most of the people I know.  I think when our perception kicks in for this reason or that, the way we experience each other shifts and changes.  It’s hard to hold two truths at the same time but learning to hold multiple truths is a worthy endeavor.  People are not all dark or all light.  That perception changes by the experience of the people around them.  To some, I may be kind, to others I might be sharp or blunt and to others I could seem aloof or disengaged.  I think about that when I encounter someone who rubs me the wrong way.  I remember that we’re all part good and part not like the yin and yang symbol.  The dappled light reminds me that light and dark do something to our perception physically and metaphorically.  A photographer loves the interplay.  As human beings, we appreciate one more than the other for many reasons.

I think as time goes by, I find myself more appreciative, and even understanding of the exchange, the dance between dark and light.  I’m not overly fascinated by good and evil here and that’s not really what I’m focused on.  It’s more superficial and also philosophical I guess.  I appreciate both darkness and light.  I appreciate all of the seasons.  I love the heat and the cold.  I like blue skies and dark gray ones.  I like quiet mornings with birdsong and diffused light and I like the sharpness of a turbulent sky punctuated with fractured lightning and instantaneous booms of thunder. 

I think the more I live, the more I appreciate life in motion.  I may not like all aspects or enjoy exchanges with every aspect of nature or even human beings but what I will hold is enough grace and respect for life as it’s happening.  I think the more I learn and understand, the less I find myself borrowing trouble with worry or rigidity that does nothing but frazzle my own nerves.  When the road ahead is shorter than the road behind you, I think you start to become choosier about the thoughts and emotions you most wish to entertain.  I think I’d much rather hold forgiveness and it’s resulting peace, than anger and it’s resulting animosity or love, instead of fear.  I have rambled.  Thoughts over coffee have concluded, I promise.

I’m glad that you stopped by little corner of the internet, I’m glad that you are here lending your time and your energy to life on Earth.  Whether you are feeling the light or the darkness, you are life in motion.  Everything matters, you matter.

© August 2026, Photo and Words

Are you Conflict Avoidant? Read On...

Wow what a week has it been.  I’ve had one conflict after another arise and I’m reminded of the Whack-a-Mole game.  I realized that as soon as I whacked one away, another cropped up.  After a while I began to lose patience with all that whacking away of conflict.  I decided to step back from it and get some perspective, a much higher perspective.  What I saw in a moment in the sun, listening to Deval Premal chanting was that each conflict that presented itself was actually an opportunity to learn.  I took a deep breath and just soaked in the light of the sun.  I calmed my frazzled nerves and went back to my day with a new perspective.  I can choose to be conflict avoidant and irritated when it shows up on my path or I can observe it and consider precisely why it showed up on my path.

Now, with this perspective, I can see with much greater clarity that conflict is actually a wonderful opportunity to learn something.  Whether the conflict is generated by people, situations or things, there is something to be learned.  So, learn I did and I’m so very grateful.  With people conflict arises primarily from assumption.  When each side makes an assumption from a perception filtered through their own environmental psychology and considers that assumption to be truth without even attempting to fact-check, conflict will arise.  Now, if each side is willing to tackle the conflict head on, open their minds and hearts to the fact that their perceptions and assumptions may not be the truth, each may have an opportunity to grow closer in understanding and even embrace compassion for the formerly held perception or assumption.  Is that not amazing?  It certainly is to me.

Oh if we only came with instruction books!  Sadly, we do not and we do not for good reason.  Are you curious about that reason?  It’s simple.  You are infinitely amazing just exactly as you are and whether you know it or not, you love the experience of living and through that living, you learn.  If you had a book that gave you all the answers, you’d be bored because you are just too smart for a simple class in the Earth School.

So, the next time you encounter conflict, observe the little “c” consciousness or ego’s need to engage.  Try if you can not to judge anything about what is happening but just observe and see if you can feel your way to the truth beyond assumption and perception.  You can then ask questions, validate facts and then move forward in full awareness.  It’s really quite amazing when you can train yourself to respond in this way in control of your faculties rather than being controlled by your little “c” consciousness.  Just some more food for thought beautiful souls.  Have a great day.

And if you need a little calm inspiration, have a listen to this great work from Deva Premal:

 

The Right Premise- What is That?

Wow is life so very amazing! You may or may not agree and that’s perfect. Your perspectives as I have often written are the filtered through which you learn. Many a famous teacher has pointed out and rightly so that you can take two human beings and put them in the same situation and each is going to perceive it differently, oppositely even if they agree on the basic premises of the situation. In this example, say the two human beings are placed in a tropical rain forest.

Both agree that they are in a rain forest and so begin their perceiving from the premise upon which their perceiving is built. Each perceives then, his or her experience through the filters that have shaped their beliefs about how they view their experience. One may love the showers and the other may detest it. One may love the Earthy smells and sounds and the other may dislike it thinking everything is dirty and unclean. Who is right and who is wrong? How is one person’s perception right and another’s wrong when two perceptions collide even if they agree upon the premise from which they begin?

This is not an original idea. It’s an old one — A very old understanding of the way things work here. But, if you were to spend all of your time following the thread of the way things work here, there is something important you are going to miss, like your own life, for example. It is your life and you can choose to miss it and focus all your efforts externally in blame, seeking conspiracy theories or searching ancient truths to validate the premise from which you begin to project your own perception or you can do something else. You could just decide live.

If you are of an inquiring mind in terms of your own self-development, seek out the patterns and themes that have existed within your life. Your own life lessons will tell you every single thing you need to know – add to that the observer’s “feeling” within you (not read emotion as that belongs to the realm of the small “c” conscious ego). The Observer’s “feeling” is much more expansive and comes from an entirely different place and just from experiencing that place within you, you may realize you have many premises from which you exist and project into this world via your own beliefs about what you experience. Is your world like the rain forest? Is it like a barren desert? Is it like a tropical Oasis? What is it for you?

You chose it for your experiencing pleasure and even though at times there seems not one thing pleasurable about your experience the moment you stop applying pressure to align to your beliefs about who you should be, there will be a moment of clarity of feeling that comes from the observer within you. Pay attention to that. Taste that like it is the rarest most delicious dessert you have ever consumed and be grateful for it for you have just found your true self. And that is very likely part of your true objective and purpose here within this plane whether or not you’ve consciously become aware of your premise.

© Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Emotion: The Pendulum Swings

In terms of our very complex human emotional processes we must simply understand sometimes that the pendulum of emotion swings. It just does that and sometimes for very good reasons we may one day understand more clearly.

Emotion Strikes

We sometimes tend to worry or become upset when emotions strike. Really, there is no need to get overly annoyed or excited about it. Just observe, seek the understanding that lies beneath the emotion, beneath the thoughts that create it, and grab a hold of the feeling and the message it is truly trying to bring you.

The Pendulum Swings

It is often easier said than done, I know. But if you can learn to find that place…that space within you where you can go knowing you are safe from your emotions, you’ll not be swallowed whole or carried away by them.  You can ride the wave of certainty that for your ultimate good, you can and will master the moment whether it goes by quickly or seems to drag over-long.

Perception Changes and So Do You

Allow yourself to feel however it is you feel and know that you are going to be fine even if it doesn’t feel fine in a moment. The pendulum swings, it doesn’t stay “stuck” for long. Sometimes it only seems stuck…a perception for good reason, again.  Emotion can seem to slow or speed time.  It’s all perception, emotion isn’t you – please remember. It is just part of the experience of life here.

Let it be as it is…let you be you…you can do this.

Note:  If you struggle too much with emotion for whatever reason, please seek the assistance of a licensed trained mental health counselor.  They can make the challenging parts of your emotional journey much easier to manage.

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Painful Life Lessons: Extraordinary Teachers and Precious Moments

I wonder about life as I sit here quietly tapping away on my keyboard.  Outside my wind chimes make a beautiful tinkling sound in the sunny sea breeze of a beautiful day.  The things I have seen have filled the pages of my life with so many things.  There has been much comedy, love, disappointment and tragedy.  I’d say the most important of all was the painful life lessons.  It was those and the teachers who gave them that I am most grateful for.  I may not have thought so at the time and I might have chosen to harden my heart and mind against this world seeing only villains and victims within it.  But something within me, so very deep within me said, “stop, these are not the thoughts we wish to think and these are not the perspectives we most wish to carry.”  I listened some how to that still small voice that must have been shouting above the din of my ego’s poor me feelings.

I laugh gently at myself now for those glory days of tears and anger, frustration and disappointment.  I don’t think I’d like to walk through them again and I don’t think I care to venture into the future either.  I’m finding such peace in a simple moment that I care not to venture outside of it.  Breathing into the amazing wonder of the moment at hand is such a precious gift.  You don’t realize what a precious gift it is until you are breathing it peacefully.  In those moments of ragged and fearful breath there isn’t much to appreciate.  I’ve seen many such moments and I’ve felt the clammy cold terror and panic of letting the mind get too far ahead of itself in “what if.”  There is no “what if” I have learned and to consider otherwise is only borrowing trouble.  Why do we always do that?  Rhetorical question.  These days I think  I try not to let my thoughts get too far away from me.  I can let them stretch back in a few moments only to go over what I think I have learned and realize I did get the lesson and fully. 

Lately I have given much thought to teachers and students and how much we are all that in every moment of our lives.  I smile now as I realize those teachers I decided most to continue learning from and those who with gratitude I blessed as they went on their merry and sometimes not so merry way.  There are worlds from which we can gain so much understanding if you’d get yourself outside the typical paradigm of language, thinking and stretch, stretch, stretch into the beauty of the unknown within this precious moment.  We are here, there and Elsewhere all the time I suppose.  What a treasure that thought is in a moment such as this!

The leaves have begun the process of rebirth from my favorite tree and I can hear her song, Singing River.  The wind rushing through the leaves always soothes my soul like a lullaby.  Precious seconds have escaped in this moment and still here it is, right where I’ve left it.  Paradoxical or not time is sweeping and changing, perceived only and still seemingly rearranging.  It’s a fascinating thought at least I think.  I let my gaze drift from the screen to the sky.  Soon those cerulean blue skies will turn indigo and then black and the stars will be out in abundance and I will still be in this moment.  What a curious thing this moment is.  Our lives begin and end in a moment.  Yesterday was just a moment ago.  Tomorrow may be here in just a moment.  For now, I am still and time?  Who cares.? Life is too precious, too beautiful and I love it.  I’ll be back, in a moment but don’t’ wait for me.  Go have fun exploring this dream.  Just do yourselves a favor and don’t take anything but love and compassion seriously.  Bless.

© 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.

Fearless Introspection is the Way to Freedom

When faced with something toxic, gently set it down.  Examine it dispassionately for the purpose of understanding for in that understanding therein lies a true and beautiful opportunity to gain wisdom and insight into your own spirit.

The above statement came to me earlier this week and turned out to be a bit precognitive in nature.  I’ve written about malware in the psyche in some of my works and we all have it.  As uncomfortable as it may feel, when you are faced with yours, it can be both frightening and exhilarating at the very same time.  When moving through our day to day we come across a present day scenario that sets off a trigger from a moment in the recent past, it feels so very uncomfortable.  When you set that down and look at it from a calm and peaceful perspective, you begin to see the entirety of  the picture in that the recent trigger is not the only one and that is exactly why you may feel completely undone (even if you don’t show it on the outside).  I’m a highly functioning member of society.  I have much insight about any number of things but must admit that turning it inward is much work.  That’s a little funny to me because all the things I write about are based on direct experience.  I'm just as infected with malware as everyone else on the planet.  The only difference I've become more aware of it over time and have learned that through that awareness we can buy ourselves precious seconds to over-ride our automatic mental operating systems infected with malware and make healthier choices for ourselves.

Writers are always encouraged to write what they know.  Well, if I wrote only about emotional trauma, distress and disappointment, I’d be writing soap operas that are useless and reinforcing the negative rather than embodying a curious reflection in the fullness of faith in myself to face whatever it is that has been created by me in my life to deal with.  So, I’m reflecting this morning about a trigger I faced this week.

I can’t reveal all the details because others are involved but I will just say that a fear seemingly originating from just a bit further back in my timeline seemed to be manifesting in my present.  I thought I had solved that fear by stepping off the battlefield and taking a different path.  But fear is funny – if you don’t deal with it head on, it will reappear not to drive you crazy but to give you a better opportunity to understand it.  So, I encountered this opportunity this week and  in the moment of discovery, my body and mind were in reactive mode with so much toxic emotion that I could barely function.  I realized that even though I was in an emotionally reactive state I could still feel the opportunity I had to experience this fearful thing with grace.  Also, fortunately for me, I had  the benefit of unexpected assistance in a moment that helped me realize I was safe to explore what was really happening.  Now, this particular situation is an ongoing one and so I had to ask myself, “Why am I reacting like I am right now?”  I was stunned by an unanticipated and seemingly uncontrollable involuntary emotional reaction.  My own response is in part due to the event I mentioned a little further back in my timeline when I found myself in a similar emotionally reactive state.  I thought I solved this issue at its source when my inner guidance prompted me to take a new direction in an area of my life.  I followed and life was still tough but ultimately it was better.

There was a part of the scenario that always had the potential to come back and it did, a tiny little sliver of it in just the way I most feared and my body unconsciously reacted to that tiny sliver as if I was squared off on the battlefield with broadsword in hand again.  I analyzed my own reactions being of two minds always on a thing – the object and the subject both witness and experiencer of life.  And so, I curiously felt my way through, letting the emotion be…trying not to beat myself up in my thoughts that all of my progress was for naught – all of my progress was brilliant and perfect and the only threat was a perceived one and not a real one.  There was an old fear that creeped up – a fear that I could not handle what was before me.  A lie inside my own mind I recognized immediately but it generated emotion.  I had no choice in the moment other than to let the emotion have its voice and so I just allowed it to be.  I am emotional today but I am also something more – I am wise for my experience of the recent and not too distant past experience but with a little analysis and reflection I see this is a pattern and theme.  There is a string of these very same things that run through the whole of my conscious experience here in physical reality.  This means there was a moment where a certain kind of fear was installed in the form of mental malware by careless individuals who knew not one ounce better.  An old belief was uncovered and that belief was, "I am not good enough."  This realization became a threat to my current conscious belief of what being good enough is.  I realized that the source of the old belief of "not-good enough" was fighting to become completely conscious.

I see the string of triggers and events and their meaning to me, so personalized, so perfect and so me to combat something such as a belief that was never mine but one given me not so much in word but in circumstance (and well, sometimes word).  If I could give you all of the specifics it would make so much more sense but I cannot as it involves others I said and their part in this journey are confidential and well truly irrelevant to my present thoughts and understanding.  I see them as blessed teaches of a very tough life lesson, the threatening of self at the level of a belief held unconsciously.  This is the most destructive type of thoughts there is.  It is unreal should you ever encounter it.  The belief – is null, invalid and untrue and no soul who approaches me and attempts to push that belief back upon me will be met with nothing other than compassion along with a very strong rejection of any form of illusory attack.

My reaction this week was a cellular reaction of a child who knew they were being told a lie, a destructive lie that was reinforced so many times that it crossed their ethical line into oblivion.  I see now that child and how her presence within me today, the way she evoked an unconscious reaction in me in my present situation was the most beautiful gift I have been given in a long time.  The gift of wisdom and the gift of insight…She has been speaking to me for years through anxiety, depression, disappointment and self-limiting thoughts.  She has been fighting to get me to remember the time before we were given the belief – the malware…remember that moment when you knew and believed in the truth of you, that you stood in the brilliance of your own light unphased by the insanity of the malware of others and there do I still stand.

As I reflect on my present day triggering of a core level aspect of malware, I’m shaken a bit physically and emotionally but the observer of the subject (both are me) are actually over joyed.  There is no threat. There is only bad behavior I prefer not to tolerate and there are my choices I will make in line with my own light.  I will participate in full awareness of the truth of my being, I know what I’m capable of and I know where my boundaries are.  I will exercise all aspects of the fullness of my being to face this trigger once and for all knowing no matter what comes of the situation, I am safe, I will be safe and no words or actions can ever change that.  By safe I mean emotionally safe.  This is no physical threat that I face but the challenge of healing an old emotional wound.

We are such amazing and complex creatures.  Beautiful aspects of The Whole are we.  I find as I stand in that light, it's time now to challenge my own perspectives.  For in so doing, the present elements I face become nothing but actors playing roles in a play I thought I might find entertaining to bear witness to.  So creative it is and I’m pleased in this moment at the creativity expressed by all who have participated from the first moments in the long distant past to the present individuals who stand in the roles now.  What a blessing it is to reach a moment of understanding of a life lesson learned and finally understood.

 

© 2015 (photo and words)

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

The Little Garden (ACIM)

I was writing an article this morning on a troubling topic.  I paused for a moment and opened A Course in Miracles to a random page instead.  As I read the passage I smiled. Talk about your perfectly timed messages.  I will share the passage that I randomly found in its totality.  It is a very important passage for those who wish to understand a little more about our construct and basis toward motion and action within this limited framework we now find ourselves in - that we chose to be in here at this time.  And now, the passage titled:  The Little Garden

1. It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was it's origin, and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical, for it was made to limit you. Can you who see yourself within a body know yourself as an idea? Everything you recognize you identify with externals, something outside itself. You cannot even think of God without a body, or in some form you think you recognize.

2. The body cannot know. And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur that surrounds you. God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out and keep you apart from Him. The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom where God can enter not.

3. Within this kingdom the ego rules, and cruelly. And to defend this little speck of dust it bids you to fight against the universe.  This fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that, could you but appreciate the whole, you would see instantly that it is like the smallest sunbeam to the sun, or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean.  In its amazing arrogance, this tiny sunbeam has decided it is the sun; this almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean.  Think how alone and frightened is this little thought, this infinitesimal illusion, holding itself apart against the universe.  The sun becomes the sunbeam's "enemy" that would devour it, and the ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it.

4. Yet neither sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless activity.  They merely continue, unaware that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of themselves.  Even that segment is not lost to them, for it could not survive apart from them.  And what it thinks it is in no way changes its total dependence on them for its being.  its whole existence still remains in them.  Without the sun the sunbeam would be gone; the ripple without the ocean is inconceivable.

5.  Such is the strange position in which those in a world inhabited by bodies seem to be.  Each body seems to house a separate mind, a disconnected thought, living alone and in no way joined to the Thought by which it was created.  Each tiny fragment seems to be self-contained, needing another for some things, but by no means totally dependent on its one Creator for everything; needing the whole to give it any meaning, for by itself it does mean nothing.  Nor has it any life apart and by itself.

6.  Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you.  It is not missing; it could not exist if it were separate, nor would the whole be whole without it.  It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest.  Nor does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest, and keeping it apart from its Creator.  This little aspect is no different from the whole, being continuous with it and at one with it.  It leads no separate life, because its life is the oneness in which its being was created.

7. Do not accept this little, fenced-off aspect as yourself.  The sun and ocean are as nothing beside what you are.  The sunbeam sparkles only in the sunlight, and the ripple dances as it rests upon the ocean.  yet in neither sun nor ocean is the power that rests in you.  Would you remain with your tiny kingdom, a sorry king, a bitter ruler of all that he surveys, who looks on nothing yet who would still die to defend it?  This little self is not your kingdom.  Arched high above it and surrounding it with love is the glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and love is the glorious whole, which offers all its happiness and deep content to every part.  The little aspect that you think you set apart is no exception.

8.  Love knows no bodies, and reaches to everything created like itself.  Its total lack of limit is its meaning.  It is completely impartial in its giving, encompassing only to preserve and keep complete what it would give.  In your tiny kingdom you have so little!  Should it not, then, be there that you would call on love to enter?  Look at the desert--dry and unproductive, scorched and joyless--that makes up your little kingdom.  And realize the life and joy and love would bring to it from where it comes, and where it would return with you.

9. The Thought of God surrounds your little kingdom, waiting at the barrier you built to come inside and shine upon the barren ground.  See how life springs up everywhere!  The desert becomes a garden, green and deep and quiet, offering rest to those who lost their way and wander in the dust.  Give them a place of refuge, prepared by love for them where once a desert was.  And everyone you welcome will bring love with him from Heaven for you.  They enter one by one into this holy place, but they will not depart as they had come, alone.  The love they brought with them will stay with them, as it will stay with you.  And under its beneficence your little garden will expand, and reach out to everyone who thirsts for living water, but has grown too weary to go on alone.

10. Go out and find them, for they bring your Self with them.  And lead them gently to your quiet garden, and receive their blessing there.  So will it grow and stretch across the desert, leaving no lonely little kingdoms locked away from love, and leaving you inside.  And you will recognize yourself, and see your little garden gently transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven, with all the Love of its Creator shining up it.

11.  The holy instant is your invitation to love to enter into your bleak and joyless kingdom, and to transform it into a garden of peace and welcome.  Love's answer is inevitable.  It will come because you came without the body, and interposed no barriers to interfere with its glad coming.  In the holy instant, you ask of love only what it offers everyone, neither less nor more.  Asking for everything, you will receive it.  And your shining Self will lift the tiny aspect that you tried to hide from Heaven straight to Heaven.  No art of love calls on the whole in vain  No Son of God remains outside His Fatherhood.

12.  Be sure of this; love has entered your special relationship, and entered fully at your weak request.  You do not recognize that love has come, because you have not yet let go of all the barriers you hold against your brother.  And you and he will not be able to give love welcome separately.  You could no more know God alone than He knows you without your brother.  But together you could no more be unaware of love than love could know you not, or fail to recognize itself in you.

13.  You have reached the end of an ancient journey, not realizing yet that it is over.  You are still worn and tired, and the desert's dust still seems to cloud your eyes and keep you sightless.  Yet He Whom you welcomed has come to you, and would welcome you.  He has waited long to give you this.  Receive it now of Him, for He would have you know Him.  Only a little wall of dust still stands between you and your brother.  Blow on it lightly and with happy laughter, and it will fall away.  And walk into the garden love has prepared for both of you.

My observation:  The ego holds a strong control over the reality and totality of who we are but the ego does not hold all the power.  The ego holds fear and creates only from a place of fear and that fear breeds separation and a false sense of identity and self and seeks to make itself greater or lesser than others all from fear.  To realize this tiny piece of ourselves exists is very important.  To know also that this very tiny piece of us that exists does not have to be given free reign to continue separating and lonely thoughts and further creating from fear the very things that keep us separate.  The soul knows it's relation to the whole, fully and with great love.  The soul observes the ego's machinations and is not controlled by it.  The body's consciousness creates the ego to protect itself.  But it does not have to control the mind, heart and soul and won't the moment you realize the ego's machinations are small compared to the powerful being that you are as a part of the whole.  It is from this place, the place of the whole that our self-love stems and it is from this place we can create the most amazing and rewarding experiences in this life.  Do not look at the ego machinations of the people you see in this world.  Do not minimize or belittle them by judging them from the tiniest aspect of their being as their wholeness.  Your brother is you and you are your brother.  The tiny egos within us all create the separation.  The body and soul can speak in truths but you must learn first to set aside the ego in order to receive the truth.  It takes years of practice and those of you who say you have no ego - know that this is merely the ego's defense.  All of us incarnate have an ego - a little self that thinks itself very big and in control.  When you can step into the seat of the soul you can see the difference in your soul's consciousness versus the ego's consciousness and once you have seen it, then know your wings are growing and you are about to return to flight.  Blessings of great love, light and understanding dear souls!

(c) 2012 Jaie Hart (photo, random internet find - Passage as is stated, A Course In Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace).

Time

Time, it’s such an interesting concept both within and outside of this frame.  Having experienced many occasions of being outside of time completely, I wonder about our experience of time within this frame.  Time seems to hold certain laws in common consideration.  However, we have evidence of time behaving differently such as in cases where our astronauts are propelled out into space by rockets speeding ever skyward on stellar expeditions and slight changes to their experience of time while ours back here on Earth remains unchanged.  I come back to thought within this frame work and cannot help but go immediately to perception.  Perception does not escape the law of time in this frame but it seems to at times.  I think back on the last 30 days.  Time seems to have accelerated at such a pace that I cannot believe how quickly the days have seemed to escape me.  But even though they may have seemed to escape, every single day of the last 30 days has been filled, at least within the frame work of my perception, with bliss for fleeting or long moments knit together.  Is it the state of bliss that transforms or affects to passage of time?  

I think back also to a simple event, meditation.  I had 15 minutes to meditate the other night and get free from this framework all together.  Within the time I was deep inside my own mind and being, I had two very long conversations.  One with someone I love very much in this life here incarnate and another with a dear angelic friend who is not incarnate at this time.  Both conversations by the laws within this framework, would have taken hours to complete and when I pulled myself out, I looked at the clock and saw that exactly 15 minutes had transpired.  How is it that I can have two-at least two hour conversations with two different souls on topics that I have fully realized the benefits of in every fiber of my being in only 15 minutes?  While in meditation, do we escape to a realm that is outside of time?  Is it just a perception?  If it is only a perception, how can I explain the volumes of information that within this frame would have taken several hours to take in?

If I go back to a premise of life, one that I hold dearly in that this, this life is only a dream, I think my questions start to make sense.  One thing I’ve noticed about dreams within this dream is that whole scenes of activity and information take place in the span of about 15-20 minutes, often, even shorter down to mere minutes.  However, the information taken in is beyond the time within this framework.  Within dreams we are outside of time in this physical frame work and we do not have the limits within our dreams that we have while dreaming in this larger dream we call life.  So, if the larger dream we call life is just a dream, then it would seem that time here is only a perception and it also is not limited by anything other than our thoughts.  Our perceptions can serve to slow our experience of time or can seem to cause it to speed up.

As we age within this larger dream of life, they say that time accelerates.  Within this framework the law of time lapse is as it is.  It does not change while we remain static but our perception can affect time at least in our own minds.  So, if our perception can break the barrier of this law of time in this frame based on our own thoughts and level of engagement within the dream, my mind immediately goes to what other concrete seeming laws can we change with mere thoughts?  Our perceptions are fueled by the energy of our emotions I now realize and that energy contains the stuff of creation for us to use either consciously or unconsciously to create as we wish for our own enjoyment (whether in the positive or the negative).  Can we really be so powerful?  Is this the divine aspect of our existence moving subtly under the cover of labels and rules that we somehow inflict upon ourselves?  Can you imagine the freedom of holding this perception?  Can you imagine the things we could do and learn and the lessons we could take in on a much grander scale?  Time can be distorted so for me, in many instances, the law of time does not exist.  

What about the limited laws of matter as we perceive them?  We think what we see is solid but when you break down those barriers in the study of physics, we learn that what we perceive as solid is really atoms and molecules vibrating more quickly or slowly forming our perceptions of matter.  If we could but understand how it is that we come to these agreements of perception, how might we change what we see into something we would really love to experience?  I don’t know the answers to my questions but I want to know and will look for ways in which I can experiment on my own for no other reason that the pure enjoyment of discovery.  I’m a natural rebel when it comes to rules at times and so my thoughts cannot help but roam through simulations and potential options for creating differently.  Simply put, I believe our perceptions expand or limit our experience in this dream and even dreams within the larger dream we call life.  Time is just one rule that is often broken…at least in our perception.  One conclusion I come to after these stretched and unscientifically proven mental meanderings is that perception itself is a tool for creation.   

Well, I must get myself off to work thinking of “time.”  My boss perceives that I should be in my office at my desk at the agreed upon time of 7:30 a.m.  Hmmmm, today of all days I wish I had the energy to manipulate that perception oh, say, for about 9 hours at least!  (giggles).  I hope this day that you all are enjoying the time of your lives.  Be blessed. (Forgive typographical and grammatical errors as I won’t have time to proof read until later.  I thought this was a fun topic so decided to post it unedited for now).

(c) 6/12 Jaie Hart (photo, random internet find).