An Inadvertent Path Amidst a Dream

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

© 2016 Jaie Hart

Inside Out - Outside In

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Interesting it is to me our habitual outward focus on what everyone else is doing from the rich and famous, to co-workers, family and even friends.  We watch as the ego compares itself continually to everyone else to judge where it is on the food chain.  There is no shortage of things to find wrong with everyone else when your ego has trained its eye on that kind of filter.  The challenging part for us all is understanding that the more we extend and expend our energy in an outward focus, the more what needs healing within us remains hidden and so very out of reach.

What if we were to shift our focus from pointing out all the wrongs of this world inward and observe what is going on inside of our own bodies, our sensations from inside our own skin and our own thoughts and emotions?  What if we were to explore more our inner world of amazing beauty and endless passage ways into the heart of our own being?  What might we find?  What better things might we learn about ourselves, this world and life if we could just learn to habitually shift that focus inward?

Sometimes the best way to influence behavior you find outwardly displeasing is to return that focus to self and live up to our own expectations, sweeping our own porch clean and setting a very fine example of all that we think is good in this world.  If we could follow our own bliss instead of the manifestations of pain in others, we might just help create a greater loving space for all to grow, to learn and awaken on their own terms.  We need not complain about others to lift ourselves up and in fact that lift up, well, it’s just an illusion that will lose its effect pretty quickly.  When we go deeper within and find all that is loving, good innocent and gentle, the lift up we can achieve is by far longer lasting.  We’re not readily taught this but if you try it and create this as a habit, you’ll find your life shifting and changing around you.

You might even learn what you’re attached to that causes you to notice what you call bad behavior in others.  There is a belief hiding in there I can almost guarantee it.  But it is okay to have beliefs hiding.  It’s okay to leave them alone and do nothing other than what you’ve always done.  Truly.  I merely intend to point out an alternative for those who may be considering it.  My way isn’t the only way or the best way.  It’s just a path.  Every step we all take is on a path and one that is truly perfect for each and with some understanding and lots of love and no fear, you begin to see what was once unseen and what was once so very misunderstood.  When you get to this place, the eyes of your soul begin to open and you start to see with love instead of fear.  It feels better, I have to say.  But old groves are hard to move out of.  Practice makes perfect so why not for one day practice focusing on you and your behavior, the love within you, the gratitude you didn’t take time to notice, the beauty all around you and the unique beauty of everyone and everything in existence?  It’s just a day.  It may be the best day of your life and one you may wish to practice more and repeat again some time or every day.  Just some food for thought.

 

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© 2016 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

My Soul is from Elsewhere

My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there - Rumi

I ran across a quote by Rumi.  As with all his words, you can’t just quickly run past them.  You really have to sit with them a bit and reflect.  As I consider the words, “My soul is from elsewhere” alone, there is a strong resonance that echoes through not only my soul but the entirety of my spiritual consciousness.

I don’t believe we were created from nothing with a sudden appearance here on this Earth.  We’d have to come up with a much better and clearly defined understanding of consciousness in order for me to believe that.

I think that we always existed and even as we project our focus here in this dimension, there is still a part of us that remains part of that “Elsewhere” of which Rumi spoke. 

Notice, maybe as I have, that he never said “return there” as if we had left and would some day return.  He said, “End up there.”  I think the concept of “End up there” is a little closer to the truth.  Perhaps we never left Elsewhere at all and everything we experience here is this massive, amazing and wonderful dream just for the delicious beauty of the experience of it.

No one can say with certainty but I think it’s a nice thought for now.  Beliefs are not entirely useless.  I guess their usefulness depends on what you allow them to motivate you to do.  If your belief keeps you happy, smiling, kind and supportive of all life here on planet Earth, then I’d have to say your belief would not be a bad thing in my book.  If your belief stirs up chaos and strife or intentionally harms life on this planet, I’d have to reflect very hard to be understanding of such beliefs.  I could do it but I may not like it.

It’s a funny world we seemingly live in but to me it is more than a pleasant thought to consider my soul comes from Elsewhere and one day I intend to end up there.  I don’t think I ever left there and I don’t think anyone else did either.  I can’t prove it but neither can you definitively disprove it.  That is the beauty of this intricately woven and matrixed experience called life.

So, let us go about our lives then regardless of potential origins or conscious residence.  Perhaps we should just live our lives to the fullest no matter our beliefs or the beliefs of anyone else. Respect all, love all and hold compassion for all.  Maybe we simply continue to move towards that which stirs us in a beautifully resonating fashion for therein lies our true strength and authenticity.

 

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Beyond the Sun's Light

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Funny thoughts of late have I held for reasons I don’t know if I care to explore.  There are so many thoughts converging and feelings surfacing in this moment that I’m not sure where to begin.  I wanted awareness and I wanted understanding and I find it near comical the effect it has had on my vision.  I see things now so differently.  At first the sights in my new found vision hurt me to my core.  It hurt my heart to see what humanity does to itself, all of the pain and all of the striving to be better than even in the negative.  Oh it sent my mind spinning and my world swirling right straight back into the heart of me.  And there I sat so very quietly.  Long years spent thinking and searching for meaning and understanding only to find pain?  I knew that could not be the reason and something within me drove me further within.

I see so much now in this world.  I see sociopathic behaviors in companies, narcissistic behaviors in humans, antagonistic behaviors in those harmed by their own psychology and the wake of additional collateral damage left to flounder in a sea of not knowing, seemingly lost.  Was I better off before?  I questioned that.  I really did.  For what did understanding bring me now but to see how much humanity suffers with intent.  Yes, I said Intent with a capital “I.”  It took many years for the horizons to broaden ever wider and to contend with the emotions and feelings my new vision brought me. 

Reconciliation could not be had while working from within a framework I was given and unconsciously held on to.  I was working from the premise of malware so deeply installed within my own human operating system that I made myself such a victim of this world.  I couldn’t admit it but I felt it.  It crushed me and I unconsciously sought out lesson after life lesson to reinforce what I was learning.  But I wasn't getting the lesson so I fought back harder and longer and walked off eventually in dire frustration creating silence and distance while thinking I was stepping off the battlefield.  I was not.  The battle had only begun and I waged it well.  Unfortunately, no wait...fortunately, I waged that battle against myself.  The battle was an illusion born of delusion and mistaken belief held for so long it seemed real.  It wasn't real.  It was never real.  Breathe.

Perhaps it was actually growth that brought me to that point.  When I reached that point and the pain grew deep enough I had to stop all thought, all feeling and then begin to reach within for the truth.  Brilliant teachers from all parts of humanity helped me to understand that belief can be a deadly thing to our emotional states, our relationship with ourselves, our relationships with others, our relationship with this world and reality as well as our relationship to the Cosmic One in which we are all an intrinsic part.  I did not understand that it was belief alone that created the opacity of the filters through which I once viewed this world and life here within it.  From ground zero, you cannot see the Whole.  From 10 feet up, you cannot see the Whole and from 1,000 and 100,000 feet you cannot see the Whole.  You have to get yourself entirely outside of the framework you think you know in order to see the Truth.  And even when you see it at first you will not want it.  You won’t at first understand it.  Our consciousness is beyond our description and is more than the limited striations of psychology or any other “ology” that exists to define it.  We must learn to find our own resonance and the Source of that resonance and feel our way through the muck and mire of an unaware and zombie-like state of a life lived asleep.  We must awaken gently with a blessed curiosity that does not prejudge an outcome of our exploration other than knowing we are capable of not only seeing and feeling the Truth but being It.

In a naturally and intentionally altered state of consciousness, I saw the world at last and I felt humanity in its entirety and with everything in me to the level of the tiniest cell within I knew the precious nature of existence.  I was shocked and astounded at my own capacity then for not only understanding but love…a love so profound and purely endless these words are really useless in conveying the depths.  We are here in this world of dichotomy for learning.  When we awaken to the Truth, the definitive Truth that can only be intuitively felt, we relax a little and the former pain of our first awakening visions begin to subside, we come to find peace and resonance with life as it is.  We find no need to change or control what is and therein lies our freedom should we wish to take it.  We can take it.  We just have to want it.

So, the point again, where was it? Yes, there it is…feel it…close your eyes for a moment and breathe in the first fiery rays of morning sometime or the last scarlet golden rays of the day as night brings a blanket of stars into view.  Know that this understanding of the Whole of our Consciousness is not unlike the sky.  Every single day we look up and we see gray or blue and white but we don’t see what is really there when the sun is up do we?  The stars are there day and night; different positions maybe as we move on our little planet in our beautiful Milky way Galaxy.  The stars are always there behind the blue, behind the clouds, behind the blinding rays of the sun.  The truth, the Truth is like that too.  It’s always there…like the heart beat of eternity…when you hear it and your own heartbeat resonates in tune with the cadence of the heartbeat of the Source of all Consciousness, then you know you have found what you were looking for.  You know you never lost anything and you know some part of you was always Home even if you forgot and even if you still struggle to remember consistently.

I wish for you a blessed journey precious ones.  Enjoy your lives; the good times and bad times equally and with a grand and yet relentless curiosity.  Seek to understand what it is you are learning and you will begin to understand the amazing wonder that you are as a glorious part of this beautiful and powerful Sentient Conscious Whole.  In love and light, may the peace and stillness carry you and comfort you always and in all ways.  And So, It Is.

--> © J.L. Harter (photo and words)

Learning to Listen

In our day-to-day, we seemingly go through the motions engaged in many things we think are so important.  We become mired in the egotistical dramas and plays projected onto our field of existence by ourselves and by others.  We participate without thinking either on the offense or in defense as each situation may call us to do and while we do it, in our strategizing and striving we’re forgetting something important… the “still small voice.”

There is more to the “still small voice,” our thoughts and our actions than achieving some goal that either we create or is created by others for us to aspire to.  There are multiple levels and layers of consciousness that we remain mostly unaware of as we live our lives each day.  Our minds hold our consciousness, our bodies hold a level of consciousness, our souls hold a consciousness and our spirits hold a consciousness.  Each of these levels represent the concept of the still small voice and each aspect of consciousness speaks in it’s own language.  If we do not learn how to listen, we may encounter some uncomfortable or otherwise dire results in our efforts.

Each of the levels of consciousness that I ascribe to the “still small voice” as I’ve described comprise a highly collaborative system of being or existence, if you will.  The mind thinks and sets forth an energy pattern that influences our actions based on our assumptions and perceptions.  The body’s consciousness in collaborative harmony with the mind’s consciousness will manifest through physical and sometimes emotional feeling.  The soul’s consciousness is beyond the consciousness of the day to day but it can be felt through true and pure emotion that is not egotistically based in any way, shape or form.  The spirit’s consciousness is much more global and also uses a language of energy that influence not only the being that it is part of a person but everyone and everything around the being or person.

Each of these levels of consciousness is always in constant collaboration with the other, constantly communicating messages back and forth and creating through this collaboration, our experiences here in life.  If we cannot hear what the deeper messages are for us, we may end up sick, stressed out, ulcers, cancer or other things we really don’t care to deal with or walking into untenable situations for us.  Now having said that, I cannot discount that each soul has set itself up with a specific series of experiences from which to learn in this life.  If one wishes to learn from the cancer experience, it is not wrong thought or ignoring messages that creates the cancer.  It is just the being wished to create an experience for itself and through learning to listen, one can come to greater and more peaceful learning from the experience.  Speaking from experience, in my own case I chose a series of lessons of involvement with certain types of interactions unconsciously from the conscious mind’s perspective.  There was an experience I wished to have I was completely unconscious of but once I learned the languages, the other ways in which consciousness spoke, I started to grasp the lessons before me much more quickly and much less painfully, I might add.

Let me give you a more specific example.  Let’s say someone is told their whole life by others that they must achieve a certain position or possessions in order to be recognized or loved.  A person who engages in those endeavors may achieve the results and yet find stress and anxiety or insomnia has taken hold.  In this kind of example, what you have is the body’s consciousness speaking and know that it does not speak alone.  While consciously one may be unaware of the other consciousness aspects speaking, the body or the mind can start to experience messages solely intended to get one’s attention.  If you can see or feel the message, you can give yourself pause to say, “Hmmm, if I am achieving all I set out to do with this goal or that aspiration, why am I not happy, sleeping or enjoying life?  That is the intent of the message of body manifesting messages through mental challenges such as anxiety or depression and other possibly physical symptoms as well.

When you learn how to listen to the whole of the “still-small-voice,” you can avoid some of the negatives or even if you experience the negatives (which are a normal part of existence), you can learn to deal with them more effectively.  You can deal with them more effectively by becoming more conscious of your own internal messaging system.  If your behavior is incongruent with the truest desires of your spirit or soul, they’ll begin to speak until they find a way for you to consciously understand (Now do you understand life’s repeating lessons?).  In this way, you will never allow yourself to truly let yourself down no matter what it is that you face.  You have an amazing consciousness system that communicates with you all the time about your environment, energy, people and situations and not just from the limited ego-judgmental perspective.  That is only one small form of the conscious communication system.  What you want is to understand the communication of the “still small voice” so that you can learn to respond to what you face (stay in your own light or power) rather than reacting to it (not staying in your own light or power).  When the egoic mind alone is in charge disregarding all other parts of the consciousness communications going on, you are forever reacting, taxing your energy and biological systems, becoming more mired in the illusions of perceptions and assumptions and can lead yourself down some pretty dark and treacherous roads.

Through learning how to listen to all aspects of the consciousness communication systems that are part of who you are, you will always make it back home to peace, bliss, joy, serenity, understanding and compassion.  One of the greatest ways to learn how to listen is to understand when you are clearly not listening.  If you are reacting, tired, stressed, sick, etc., it’s possible you are not really listening to the guidance so readily available to you that can help you understand and cope.  Another fantastic way to learn how to listen is meditating.  Taking up a practice every day of stopping all thought, learning to listen for the “still small voice” and even asking your higher consciousness systems to speak more meaningfully or obviously to you, you will start to understand the language.  It takes time, patience and willingness to benefit from the communications.  The reality is that whether you consciously learn to listen or not, the system itself will still find a way to get you the message.  The difference is a matter of control and the only thing you truly have the power to control is you.

I suggest that you take the time to fully understand how it is that you communicate with you.  All the wonder and magic that is YOU, will never let you down.  Mind your thoughts, stay open to learning to understand the language of the various consciousness systems through intent and then begin the noticing, the timing and the many ways in which you naturally and always speak to yourself and guide yourself in a positive light.  Remember, when it is the egoic consciousness involved, you are reacting.  When it is the other consciousness or higher consciousness involved, you are self and other-compassionate and more understanding and open…and thus, much more willing to hear the “voice” within.  Listen.  You truly have so much to say to you and you are worth listening to.  ~Blessings.

 

© 2014, Jaie Hart

(Photo, http://psychicpowernetwork.info)

Intent, Trust and Manifestation

Rousing gently I saw the first golden rays of morning sunlight as I lay comfortably in bed.  I thought about going back to sleep but there was this feeling inside, this excitement for the sun, for existence and breathing in and out the finally cool morning air.  Fall is my favorite time of year for so many reasons from so far back in my existence.  Even as I sit here typing I gaze up and notice the fresh morning sunlight kissing the beautiful remnants of green leaves in the great big tree outside my living room window.  It's perfectly still and in a strange and wonderful way, I can feel its joy drinking in delicious sunlight to rejuvenate after a cool night's repose.  Projection much?  Yes, I suppose but I don't really care because the feeling is so beautiful I wish to really just become lost within it.

It's quiet here in my little part of the world despite the nearby hum of the freeway.  My consciousness focuses there a moment to feel the motion and quick pace with which travelers scurry quickly to reach some intended destination.  I've stood at the apex of the overpass near me many times of late feeling the rush of the speed of the cars passing below me while watching the setting sun.  In the dusky light after it sets, the head lights and tail lights glow like Christmas lights at night.  Some say city life is not beautiful but I think that beauty and seeing it clearly is always a simple matter of frame of mind.  A little known fact about me is that I see energy.  As cars whiz past me I can see the energy of the occupants too and even more, I can feel it.  Whether it's frenetic or peaceful, joyful or harried, happy or sad...I can feel it.  In such moments I call forth the flame of love within and send it out in such moments with thoughts of only love and peace, healing and compassion.  Why?  Because I like the way it feels.  When you send nothing but love out, guess what comes back?  That's right, the energy of love comes back and becomes evident in a slight upturn of the lips for no apparent reason.

I take great comfort in my surroundings no matter where they may be.  Life is alive.  Outside of the obvious "duh" that might cause to come forth in your thought process on reading this, understand there is much more to the statement.  There is a feeling behind it and knowing it is by far less satisfying than opening up the entirety of your being and feeling the energy of it to the very core of you.  We sometimes walk this Earth so mired in our troubles, lost to the dramas we create, participate or seemingly get sucked into that we forget to tap into that beautiful stream of I AM alive.  I AM period.

Life has been crazy busy for me of late and I realize as it sit here this morning just how much I have needed a quiet cool morning to reflect and contemplate feeling everything.  Over the summer I took on college enrollment and passed my first college class with a B.  If I had tried harder, I'd have gotten an A so when the next class came, I put a tiny bit more effort in and got an A.  My next class starts in just two weeks and I couldn't be more excited.  I thought going back to school would take up so much of my time, I'd be too stressed to even enjoy life. What I'm finding is that it's quite easy to fit college courses into my normal routine and the fulfillment it brings, learning new things, awh, it's just magical to me.  Just like everything else in existence in this moment.  Our state of mind and the thoughts that we think are what bring us the experience of positive or negative from an energetic-emotional state.  I was taught a lesson recently in joyfully setting an intent and letting go of the hows or the ways in which I might achieve it.  I was instantly rewarded just hours later.  I thought again about a much larger intent that I set in a pure state of love and was rewarded just months later in the very same way....trusting my intent to manifest perfectly.  I realize now the way things work and now I see how unlimited we truly are.  Our thoughts limit our ability to fully experience our lives here in this frame work in a beautiful way.  It's good to find quiet moments for contemplation of feeling and really learning to feel the endlessness and infinite nature of your possibilities for manifestation.

All week I thought of nothing else but a quiet cool morning to collect my thoughts and write.  Thus my excitement as my eyes gently opened early this morning in the cool half light of a just rising sun.  Up, up, up, I thought...shower, coffee...computer, now bliss!  Life is truly wonderful if you make it so.  Life can be terribly tragic if you make it so.  The comedies and tragedies of this play of life that we create are so amazing.  We must dig much deeper than the superficiality of the ego to understand its intricacies.  Once you begin to understand and start testing your new knowledge in joyful and bliss-filled ways, smiles for miles will be an incredible experience for you.  I hope that you are planning a wonderful weekend filled with joy...even if in the stillness and silence of no concrete plans at all.  Listen very closely in those moments of silence for it is during such times that the very heart of your soul will whisper sweet words of encouragement and love for you. ~Blessings for a beautiful day beautiful dreamers.  I wish you love.  I wish you joy.  I wish you infinite happiness.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Soul Tree

I had occasion to speak with my guardian angel not long ago.  Usually, I go visit him Elsewhere but this time, he came to visit me.  That was different.  So, it went something like this:

Me:  Deep in meditation just almost to that point I could escape my body...One more deep breath as I was about to let go and I stopped.  I felt an energy approach and so listened more acutely (eyes still closed).  My guardian angel had appeared accompanied by a few others right there in my bedroom.  I was shocked but smiled as I had not seen him on Earth before (at least not that I am aware of).  When I finally gained my senses, I spoke, "Fancy meeting you here.  Why are you here, I was just coming to see you."

"Well, just as you sometimes appreciate a change in venue, so do I," Aaron said with a smile.

"Of course, how silly of me I," I said with a giggle.  "I'm glad you are here.  I was just thinking about something and I wondered what thoughts you might be able to share with me on a certain topic."

"If I can, you know I will.  If I can't, I will give you some puzzling evasive answer you'll have to discern for yourself," He said with a smile.

"Okay, the question is this:  If we are perfect exactly as we are and our souls are all seeing and all knowing, then why on Earth are we here on Earth at all?  If we were truly all knowing, all seeing and there is no time with our souls...if a piece of our souls remains always and ever connected to Source which is the truth, the only truth, why would we ever need to experience life here in a very restrictive and dense body, with dense consciousness bound by gravity so dense we can hardly move?"

"Well, that's quite a question you've got there and one I don't think I'll have to go immediately for the evasive to fend you off and spin you thinking into yourself.  That one I think I can answer for you.  Consider life as a human child for a moment, you fix a scene in your mind, gather your friends to you and you play house, or hospital or school.  You know it isn't really real but you pretend for a while for the fun and experience of it. Children are such naturals at this because they know that life is just pretend.  In terms of the multiple connections and dimensions you referenced in your own way, everything is in different levels - you are not limited to a single incarnation, time or are you limited by linear time sequences.  Past lives only seem like past lives.  Your consciousness moves where ever its focus needs to be and is not limited by time or space.  What you call experiences are actually the fringe elements of your soul...your soul is your higher guide, your essence and the culmination of all of your experiences but your memories lie on the very edges of focus.  You cannot recall them all at once as you actually represent only one branch of a tree, if you will.  All of the branches of a tree are on the tree but each has a different experience.  Some branches are in the shade, some are reaching for the sun, some twist and turn into each other, some bear blossoms and fruit while some bare nothing at all...but all are part of the tree.  The tree's consciousness is aware of what happens at the level of the wholeness of it's being but the branches are the feelers that reach out with purpose and then they do what branches do.  If a branch really put effort into it and became aware of itself, it could aspire to become aware of its beingness in relation to the other branches, it could also become aware of the trunk, the roots, the rings, the air, the ground it is connected to and the environment it is interconnected to and dependent upon.  Does the picture start to become a little more clear," He asked.

"I suppose so and I get what you're saying.  We all stem from the tree - the tree being our soul...the environment is the space we exist within and the root system is the ether through which we tap into the Oneness of Source and the environment that supports us and Source.  But, the framework continues to grow from this very gross oversimplification for my limited understanding, doesn't it," I asked rhetorically.

"You are feeling more of the truth right now than you can find the words to express and this frustrates you.  I can see the colors around you shifting wild now between emerald green and amber from their normal blue and violet.  Am I right," Aaron asked.

"You know you are but I cannot articulate a single word just now.  Did you come just to riddle me into oblivion with metaphors or was their another reason that you came," I asked.

"You were doing something when I arrived that actually called us to you.  You were facing emotions as if you let loose the floodgates of a dammed up overdue body of water ready to flow.  But you were completely peaceful and were just watching the emotions and they all started to surface and yet you never flinched emotionally speaking.  You let them rise to the surface without attachment realizing a part of you understands everything even if the you that was in that moment experiencing could not see the whole.  You became an aware part of the tree, and that is what called us to you...smiling and so very happy for you.  We came to encourage you and to let you know we are here," Aaron said.

"Thank you dearest angel and your friends I can see but do not yet know.  I assume at some point they will materialize more clearly so that I can see them better...either that or I shall learn to open my vision to their vibration perhaps," I said feeling so happy.

(c) 2012 Jaie Hart

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).

Indescribably Amazing

Life, with it's blazing array of colors, textures, scents and complexities is a whole lot more than we consider on most days.  It is no accident that we are here although some theories would like to postulate in prolific fashion otherwise.  If a soul were to sit very still and quiet for any length of time and let its energies expand outward into the proximity it finds itself and connect energetically to everything near it, it would have this resonating knowing deep within it that there is purpose to its existence.  There is nothing random about life at all.  Consider the sacred geometry that exists in plant life alone.  Can that really be an accident?  It's too pure and beautiful to be so in my mind but who am I to put such thoughts out there?  I am not college educated, I am not steeped in scientific knowledge nor do I profess to know the meaning of life.  What I am is comfortable in my own being and trusting of the knowing that comes from within my own soul.  If I forget completely about everything I've ever read, watched or learned...If I forget about the creation myths of religion and the various cultures around the world...If I forget all the counter-arguments about everything, my resonating knowing from deep within me remains steadfast and unchanged by anything ever written or told.  I'm satisfied with that.

When I step way back into the observer position and consider life, it is miraculously beautiful and perfectly designed.  Yes, I did say designed.  I do not believe with anything in me that we were an accidental coincidence of perfectly timed cells randomly introduced to extra terrestrial or terrestrial matter that some how evolved into what I see before me.  What I see before me when I look out into this world, backwards in time and even before me, I see a massive collaboration of cooperative agreements of and creation.  The cells within us self-create, our thoughts seem to self-perpetuate and well, there is us too and our ability to procreate.  Can this really be a random accident or convenient coincidence?  It's just to perfect and I just can't buy that.  You can show me all the scientific proof in the world, you can spell out for me all of the scientific facts, theories and postulations and you can even lay down at my feet all the religious texts in existence that are proof positive of creation and still, still I will not be swayed.  What I would see is nothing but provisional truth that cannot define nor change the real truth.

I may be completely crazy in my thoughts but one of the most important things I've learned in life is that I must immediately discount anything conveyed through man with an ego.  I don't mean to pick on gender.  I refer to both male and female of the species.  We are ill equipped to speak of anything without ego involved...even me so don't take my word for anything either.  I have come to trust my soul in my existence and its urgings and sensations more than any thought inside my head or any word that can be created.  My soul knows what my mind cannot.  There is a greater mind beyond the simple one we use to banter about ideas and egotistical notions.  This greater mind is the Source of all creation and yes, I do believe there was a Source that generated everything.  I find even the statement of "I believe" to be so limited in expression.  There is more to the sentiment behind those limited and simple words...there is this resonating knowing deep within my soul that goes beyond thought and my limited ability to reason with an ego that has been tainted by environmental psychology.  You can even analyze and consider that it must be some deep psychological need in me to believe in something bigger than myself and that I'm ignorant or misinformed for not buying into all of the things others have laid out before me.  It won't change the core of my soul's knowing.

I learned a while back that the conscious mind is a rather interesting thing.  When consciousness exists beyond the body's ability to hold it through normal functioning, one is left with this expansive feeling that cannot be shaken.  To know that when the body breathes its last breath and slowly fades from life and yet the greater connected mind holding pure consciousness continues on creating well, that is enough evidence for me.  First hand experience can be a beautiful thing if it is not judged.  Those that indicate the near death experience is not real and can be purely explained by science need to be reminded that their statements are mere conjecture based on a limited understanding of what we truly are.  But I don't need to prove that to anyone who has had a near death experience and returned to this world conscious and forever changed.  Those who have gone beyond the veil of illusion know the truth within their souls too.  So, life, well - it does have purpose and our experiences here are the real gold...the real treasures of this world.  The love that we learn to find and feel and send outward, yet another precious gem of existence worth by far more than all of the theories and rhetoric of right.  I can content myself with that and I do.  I love this life and I love this amazing opportunity to experience it with the views I allow myself to take in.  I love that we posses the ability to create in this world.  I love that we posses the indescribable ability to connect and deeply with other souls on this planet.  I love that we posses the ability to experience and then transcend conflict and energetic emotions that most definitely ensue.  Life is amazing.  We are amazing. The Source that thought us into existence by beautiful design is purely amazing.  I need more coffee and to get my day started.  I shall create a beautiful day with the four most amazing and special souls in my world, my beautiful children.  I pray your day is filled with all of the real treasures in this world and of this existence.  Be blessed!

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

Path to Know-Where

Oh sometimes the routine of life can feel a bit futile and vexing!  But, those are only superficial emotions generated by an ego that feels it has not been given enough attention.  So, I'm grateful as my ego needs to learn to sit back quietly, with less chatter and watch as my soul drives through this part of life.  The scenery is quite interesting, I must say.  Roads I think I've seen before have taken on different meanings.  The things once so important now are less so as I go.  The things I never noticed before seem to come more sharply into view.  The blaming has all but left me as any impetus for thought and instead full realization of the ultimate self-accountability for the creation of all of the situations in my life takes hold.  This feels neither good nor bad, but it just is what it is.  The soul in charge is more of an observer than a driver however it does kick into pole position when the ego is off-track.  I love that and I also love that I have some how gained the ability to listen.

I see this world around me and I wonder at all the intricacies and messages and so many levels and the way it gives my life dimension in the various planes of existence.  The ethereal side to my visions have subsided but the disappointment was very thin as I soon discovered my dreams were becoming more vivid and easily remembered upon awakening.  It's so interesting how the mind works and shifts gears in very important ways to help ensure a soul has balance.  I  go through my days as if I'm an auditor, looking for certain trends in performance and measuring against some random standard that's been set in the back of my mind and no, not for the sake of judgment.  Rather, the measuring phase is about understanding what drives the spikes and what the spikes in themes and experience mean.

No more do I wander through the world taking comfort in the obvious, material and superficial.  I slowly turn away from the world knowing full well that it will run just fine without my constant participation in the happenings out there.  I turn deeper within to feel and experience everything at a different level for no other reason than the auditing and measuring I've done indicates I've not spent enough time developing certain intangible aspects of my being and my living.  The ego tries so hard to take the reigns from time to time but it can't successfully do so because it doesn't have a firm enough basis in reality...the ego is not real but is an imagined challenge we created to keep ourselves in check.  How boring would life be if we didn't sometimes have a dichotomy inside our own heads to sift and sort through?

Spirituality leads you to some interesting places.  I've noticed the path moves ahead in leaps and bounds only to double back, twist and turn to revisit places I've already seen or thought I had.  When the path turns back there is this feeling of loss and like, "what didn't I get" or "what did I do wrong that I must go back and see this same stretch of road again?"  But then my ego forgets about dimension.   It is one thing to see with the eyes and quite another to see the same stretch with the heart or the energy body.  Understanding occurs once we've experienced something with all of our senses and sometimes going back in memory alone is insufficient and so, we seem to call to us similar situations with little changes and refinements to experience something yet again but at a deeper level.  I finally get that, I think and am no longer in a state of blaming myself for missing something.  I didn't miss anything at all but an opportunity to see something with different senses and from varying perspectives.  This realization alone is so liberating because I begin to fill like a much less stupid student on the path of life and instead feel as if I'm one beginning to get the lessons.

So, I find a time comes where I detach from the path itself.  The path and forward moving progress was something only my ego needed in order to feel good about itself.  The reality is, I've always felt good at heart, always positive, curious and willing to remain open despite the things I've encountered and then contemplated shutting down as a result.  I'm stronger than that and the lessons grow more difficult in this dream and I find that fascinating and with this fascination I look again at the lessons and I see that strangely, they are not so difficult at all and in fact are really growing easier in the scheme of things.  It just strikes my funny bone today for some reason.

Now I look around and ahead and I see the path stretched out again and I smile from inside knowing the path isn't really there at all.  I am the path, I am every twist and turn, I am the creator of impetus, motion and velocity.  I am the strangers I meet, the sun that shines and the rain that falls and cleanses everything.  My search comes to an end at the point the emptiness took hold of my consciousness and for a few brief moments, I felt I was grieving and then shortly thereafter, this stream of infinite thought, data, feeling, existence filled the emptiness like a down pour of rain in beautiful energy and light.  I'd be lying if I said I consciously understood because I don't but the soul of me knows this is the way, this is the path that leads home and if I'd never engaged in the path at all, I'd still have found the destination because it was within me all along.  We are both the journey and the destination...we are an integral part of the All of Everything seeking to shatter the illusion of our separateness.  Hmmm, well, I'm going to let these thoughts trail off and fade to the background music that plays continually inside of my head.  The new direction is nowhere.  I can't stop laughing.  It's beautiful.  ~Blessings for your journeys dear ones.  May you find the joy, peace and happiness of your own existence in this amazing dream.

(Forgive the typos and grammatical challenges.  I don't usually type stream of consciousness into my blog but have today and plan to leave it as is.  (c) 6/12 Jaie Hart - Photo/Random internet find).