Breaking the Veil of Illusion

Interesting it is how labels and accusations are so carelessly strewn about by some against others without understanding the truth.  You see, your observations can only ever be filtered through your own biases, experience and other psychological filters. These observations form a perception of a thing or a person, and your perception, no matter how much you think is the definitive truth, is nothing but what you want to believe projected outward from within.  This is done commonly and frequently with little understanding in the absence of understanding these projections upon others in the form of labels and names. The labels created are not really representative of "the other" that is the object of your observation but is rather more descriptive of something much more familiar to you.  Namely, what things lay hidden deep within you that you unknowingly project outward onto "the other."  The question those labelled often think in desperation is, "Why"?  Why would this person or that person label me in such a hurtful way? Conversely, people can label you in what you think is a helpful way and still they are no closer to the truth of you.  No person outside of you can truthfully determine your greatness or inadequacies properly without understanding the paradigm of The Whole.  And I'll tell you, there are few who truly understand the paradigm of The Whole.

Imagine, if you will, the internet of all things.  There are those who study it as if it is an organism in and of itself.  It may be a confusing concept, but come along with me a moment as it might help you better understand one of the many metaphors of our existence here in this frame in the way we project ourselves.  So, across the entirety of the globe (well in most places it seems these days), there are computer servers that are connected one to another through a vast physical network that creates the world wide web.  The world wide web is a mass connectivity vehicle for our ability to "tune in" to others in the physical world.  Now, each individual with a lap top, computer or smart phone taps into that source to connect and most definitely, individually project themselves into the whole of the world wide web.  We are not the world wide web but the computers we use are a part of it by virtue of an internet connection.  Does that make sense at least at a high-level?  Okay, so stick with me another moment and I'll take you down a curve in the road to a much broader application of this concept which is not new at all but very old and understood by the Ancients, the Mystery Schools and even some great religious/spiritual teachers dating much further back than our history documents.  There is a cosmic consciousness, a single Source that was the impetus for creation.  We each are like a tiny thought emanating outward from that Source but always and ever connected to that Source.  Through acknowledging connectivity with that Source we realize the connectivity we all hold similarly with each other.  In this way, we are all one in that we are all the same thing in a way, thoughts projected from a Source.  Now, this Source is infinitely powerful and creative and as you know from your own mind, your thoughts come from within you and once you create them, you send them "out there" and they become a thing unto themselves...energy, magnetic, emotion producing things we don't understand deeply enough.  We are very much like those individual computers that plug into the world wide web.  The thing is, we are never not connected to our Source and need nothing physical to connect to it other than understanding.  As we connect to Source, we too are connected to each other.

Coming back to labels now for a moment, as well as observations. If you observe with your thoughts another part of the connected Whole and ascribe labels to other parts of the Whole, in a way you are labeling yourself.  What you perceive is not necessarily the truth and doesn't necessarily stand up to the rigor of testing because your perception can be skewed by assumption taken as fact or truth when there is not a single thing underpinning solidly the formation of your assumption or perception.  But, because it seems to come from inside of your own head and maybe those thoughts generate some emotion or conviction behind it, it seems real enough and true enough. Given the limited set of facts within which most live and consciously operate, there is no reason to question the validity of your own assumptions, observations or perceptions.  Truth, however, cannot be readily understood without facts and understanding.  For ages people believed the world was flat and you could sail right off of the edge into oblivion.  That was the common perception and agreement at a certain point in our history.  That is, until some brave souls sought the truth beyond belief and sailed to the edge of the horizon and learned that the Earth was not limited in nature by being a flat 2 dimensional organism but in fact, it went on and on and around.  These souls came back and shared their truth in the form of findings and then it became readily acceptable that the world was, in fact, round.  Then there was the idea that the sun and the planets revolved around the Earth.  This was held as the only truth in the absence of facts.  Even when the facts began to surface, they were outright rejected and labelled blasphemous in fear due to many factors but primarily a complete lack in understanding.  But then, times progressed, scientific study progressed and new understanding dawned.  We learned that the Earth revolves around the sun, and the sun is just the center of one universe and that there were more universes with suns spiraling through space by some impetus and force (Source, if you ask me).  We then learned to go deeper within and study matter, energy and force and the things we took for granted or falsely held as belief were disproved by science. New windows and doors to the mind were flung open wide with new data and new horizons to explore and discover.

Now, considering all of this, what if I were to tell you that what we perceive as real here, is still just an observation based on the limited or incomplete "facts" we hold as our beliefs about reality and what reality is?  There is so much more than what meets the eye.  There is a world of consciousness we are not yet conscious of and the energy in the universe is connected and connected by the same Source that created all of it.  That means we are all an integral and important part of the Source, a collective of existence with individualized points of focus in an agreed upon reality.  The illusion of reality (life) as we perceive it is called Maya by the Hindus. (Check out the Rigveda for more understanding of the meaning of Maya).  Life as we know it is a grand illusion and to a great extent we are all delusional in our thoughts that what we see is real or that what we see, assume and perceive is representative of the truth of a thing or a person, is the truth.  If you look back at all the explorations into the various aspects of life, existence and conscious understanding, you will see that the truth is not easy to discern by relying on our projected senses, our projected ideals, our projected morals and representations of belief we hold as truth.  Our beliefs dissolve in the light of understanding.  Why?  Because we are growing and beginning to leave behind us the time of small-minded thinking.  Some of the Whole is aware of its delusion and thus seeks the freedom from it through understanding.  Some of the Whole is unaware of its delusions and strive all the harder for the security of making their worlds more than real without understanding how that undermines their own limited perceptions of and about existence.

Coming full circle, realize that to perceive or label a thing does not define its truth.  There is only one truth upon which we can rely and that truth cannot be defined by me for you.  You must learn to understand the truth for yourselves.  However, you will not find the truth of you in labeling your brothers and sisters who walk this Earth with you.  In either positive or negative labeling, by raising others up higher than you or lowering them beneath you, you actually cage yourself in a prison of your own mind.  The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental (Hermetic principal from the Kybalion).  This "physical life" is a construct of our making, collectively creating as we have been created.  Sometimes trying to wrap your physical and limited mind around this concept makes you feel "mental" in a whole different way. 

However, through patience, perseverance, allowing resonance, congruence, love, forgiveness, gratitude and an intent to understand, you can free your mind, body and soul from limited thoughts and embrace the whole of existence in a more liberating manner. The truth then is much better understood and the lesser acts of limited labeling or trapping yourselves in the veil of the ego would seem entirely insane.  Our assumptions and the need to label to begin with comes from illusion. The illusion of whatever it is the ego wants only seems real but it isn't.  The ego cannot tell the difference between a fact or an assumption and will line up emotions with either.  But, there is a deeper knowing part of your being whether you are in touch with it or not (your spirit) and it is the only thing that can guide you to the truth.  The truth is more intuitively felt than understood with limited human words.  We are by far above the limits of labeling even if we sometimes refuse to act like it.  Attempting to become greater at the expense of another (which is a colossal illusion with quite fleeting benefits for the greedy ego) is meaningless and doesn't support you or secure your stature in a meaningful way that is everlasting. 

If you tire of the victim-villain struggle for power, the only way to freedom is to understand you can't know what you don't know, so go and seek to understand the truth.  Learn that what you give out to this world becomes you.  Question the beliefs you assume or hold as truth.  Offer this world forgiveness and love, offer this world peace and understanding and refuse to play into old programs that don't seem to get you anywhere. You end up chasing your tail for an ego feed that will never truly fulfill your deepest needs.  Your deepest need is understanding, to belong (and you belong to a very big Oneness in Source alone) and for love.  You are love.  Let that come to your mind first before labels, before negative self or other judgments.  Seek understanding and it will come and if you embrace it, you will be free.

© 2014, Jaie Hart (photo and words)

Beyond Memories

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Beyond memories and a disappearing act.  A very curious journey within journeys to share.

The day began with a simple adventure as the impetus for motion.  I had the day off and really wanted to see the beautiful Huntington Gardens in San Marino.  My partner in crime and I had breakfast as per usual on a wonderful day off and headed for the local drug store to pick up a memory chip and batteries for my camera.  Seems like a simple enough task right?  Well, I got into the car and my intuition told me to check the chip and make sure it worked in my camera.  I really wanted to take pictures as I often do when off on my little adventures so it was important to me to capture my memories.  I reached into the bag and pulled out the box the chip was contained in.  I opened it only to discover the chip was not there.  I bought an empty box.  I found that funny on one hand and frustrating on another.  Grateful that I followed my intuition, I grabbed the empty box and my receipt and walked back into the store.  I went back to the checker who had just taken care of my purchase and explained to him my plight.  Without argument he told me to just go grab another and he apologized for the incident.  I checked the box at the register this time to make sure what I purchased was in the box.  With both the checker and I satisfied I had the chip, I went out to the car and snapped a quick picture.  It worked.  We were off on the journey.

Interestingly I discovered the night before that the easiest route to our destination was up Route 19.  This route was one I was intimately familiar with as it ran right through my hometown.  I knew this road and so decided to take it all the way up.  It would be a longer route as it had more lights but my intuition guided me that this was the right route to take.  I found that curious as the night before I had experienced some shadow work.  In fact the post prior to this one was about a scene still well within 24 hours of the moment I began the journey we were currently on.  I’ll share with you that I don’t care for returning to my hometown.  All the people I loved who once lived there are now gone, moved on to the other side of the veil or out of state but there was something important in the journey and the memories they would bring.  Considering my work the night before, I drove.

The journey is the destination is true for me in more ways than one.  For the first time I drove through my hometown without wincing in pain.  I took it as confirmation that my work the night before had not been in vain and it had much deeper purpose than I realized.  A funny thing happens when you let intuition freely be your guide.  The explorations seem to bring about much deeper and infinitely more helpful meaning.  Today was no different passing through my hometown.  I recalled the joys and sorrows associated with the place and I imagined releasing the energy of my own emotion from that place even if I wasn’t feeling it emotionally.  Energetically I was and the weight was heavy.  I didn’t want to leave my hometown adding to the heaviness so as I passed through it I soaked it up, cleaned it up and let it go.

We arrived after a time near our destination and after a few turns, the chills ran up and down my spine, my skin and bounced seemingly between my head and my toes.  I had seen this neighborhood before and I knew it.  You may or may not believe me when I tell you what I recognized and to be honest, I’m not sure I believe anything at all anymore.  But I’ll share anyway just for fun.  When I was 24 years old I had a bit of a nightmare.  It sat me straight up in bed and haunted me relentlessly for weeks.  I wrote about it in my book Expanding Horizons.  It marked the beginning of an aware spiritual journey…simply meaning I began seeking answers on purpose and questioning everything I had previously taken for granted while sleep-living.  I’ll sum this up quickly in that while in the dream I inhabited another body at another time and was in a strange neighborhood.  I pulled into the driveway of a strange house.  In the dream, I peeked into the window to see my ex-husband’s uncle, father and mother watching television.  I knocked on the old screen door and his mother answered.  She told me I shouldn’t be there and I insisted as I had come for my daughter who had been taken from me wrongly and I intended to leave with her.  My ex-in laws were not mean but were not fully compassionate either for reasons I could not recollect.  All I knew as that time was of the essence, freedom was my goal along with the liberation of my child.

After a short time my ex-mother in law took pity on me and told me to hurry because Jack would be home soon from work.  She handed me my near two-year old daughter wrapped in a fuzzy yellow blanket.  Our eyes met and I knew she understood how much I loved my daughter and how I feared her son and with good reason.  From woman to woman she chose to help me right a wrong.  I ran down the steps, jumped into the car and screeched the car in reverse and then down the street.  It had turned stormy and the wind was blowing the blanket my daughter was wrapped up in.  The neighborhood looked like it was somewhere in Los Angeles County but 40 miles northeast of where I grew up in this life.  The year was 1963.  The dream ended with great fear and me standing on the brakes with everything in me to stop the car.  I couldn’t stop the car and we hit another head on in a place where the streets were at odd angles.  My neck broke due to the speed I was traveling, hitting the windshield with such force that it snapped.  I was immediately outside of my body and my child, while injured, was safe.  I watched the scene flow frame after frame and I saw Jack at the hospital with our daughter.  I was angry, so angry.  I just wanted to be free.  With such rage I crossed over into the Meadow and there I sat for the longest time in the sun.  I was soon joined by my guide Jacob whose presence brought me great peace and healing.

The version I’ve told is part memory and part discovery with help.  I’ve condensed it for the sake of my little story and journey with memories.  So, suffice it to say that I found the neighborhood where the accident took place.  So much had changed but some not at all.  I noticed the feeling, the shivers in my spine and understanding that we’re more than just what we think in this life.  I let the thoughts go and found our present destination.  The accident in the dream took place in 1963 when I was approximately 27 years old.  I was born in 1966 in this life.  I cannot help but wonder now if it was my own selfishness and rage that brought me right back.  I realized it didn’t really matter.  A part of me wanted confirmation and I got it at so many levels if I consider what I had experienced within the last 24 hours.  But the confirmation didn't stop there.

The gardens had me mesmerized for hours as my partner and I were carried away by the beautiful scent of roses, watching humming birds and blue jays play, listening to waterfalls while walking through mini bamboo jungles on perfectly maintained and angled pathways.  The bridges and colors, contrasts and completion of beauty had me feeling as if I was back in heaven, in the Meadow…that same feeling of peace stayed with me all day.  My partner and I took turns snapping pictures of each other.  For some reason, I recalled every picture he took, two by the fountain, one just outside a beautiful building, one near a jade pond, another just outside the Japanese gardens with my hand on the head of a lion statue.  I saw the shutter open and close because that’s how I know it is okay to move again.  I was fortunate to gather a great number of shots.  Well over a hundred did we take that day.  Finally tired from hill climbing, we decided to return home going back the same way but with a detour running yet again through the middle of my home town.

It’s a long drive when you decide to go 40 miles down city streets.  But the memories came again.  I saw new buildings and old buildings in my home town and on the main drag where I had worked, walked and explored as a young woman, I noticed something.  The stores were all gone.  The shells were left only with no life left in them.  It was nearly an entire block of nothing but closed stores.  Oh the memories flooded of a different time in this life when this street was busy teaming with life.  The being there and gone stuck with me as a thought and a feeling too.  I detached from it knowing that here time marches on, things change, things decline and then disappear.

We had driven on our journey near almost every single place I had ever lived in this life.  That was not the intent but that is how intuition had me play it out and I don’t regret it living a day of a beautiful journey with superimposed memories happening at the same time and then disappearing the moment we hit Pacific Coast Highway, the road that would take me to my current and most favorite home.  My partner and I spoke about the concept of home and how perhaps it never really is a place after all.  We live here and think that Heaven is home and maybe it is.  But what if it isn’t?  What if heaven is merely the heart of us as we live and breathe consciously or don’t live but are conscious?  Home is inside of us all which means Heaven or the concept of it is too.

We stopped and grabbed some fast food as I was craving root beer (a common indulgence that’s been with me since I was a little girl).  Waiting in line another memory returned, one of being on the other side and wanting to be here.  Why would I want to be here and where is here anyway?  If my memories had taught me anything at all on this journey today it is that my brain can’t really tell the difference between a memory in time, a dream or physical reality from a feeling standpoint.  All evoke feelings in just the same way.  Fantasy and reality or memories and dreams, they all evoke feeling.  I let the thought trail away as I grabbed our order and we made our way the final block home.

I grabbed my root beer and my camera.  I opened it up and grabbed the chip.  I wanted to see the pictures we had taken.  I went through all 132 of them and not one of me existed even though several were taken where I saw the shutter open and close.  Simple explanations abound but so do others.  A metaphor in a day lived in my memory of memories within memories, confounded or facilitated through time or at least one common faculty…my consciousness.  I found all of the feelings of the day intriguing.  I was not happy or sad but curious.  So many whys I had floating through my brain all day and now, this final message of me disappearing from a place I thought I should be.  A part of me understands and a part of me doesn’t.  Perhaps its just more confirmation.  In another meditation I suddenly recalled a beautiful woman who came to me.  When I asked her who she was, she spoke in Japanese and said she was my memories.  Kiyoku (sp?) was her name.  But there is a world beyond memories that I can’t comprehend and I cannot hold.  I can learn, however, to just be even more present as these feelings collide and I ponder what an interesting journey this has been.

© 2014 Jaie Hart (photo and words)  A fun fact is that this is one of the places my picture was taken, I saw the camera shutter open and close as I touched the statue and when we got home, not a single picture of me was on the chip.  "Curiouser and curiouser," to quote Alice.

Shadows

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There was something I needed to do, my inspiration told me.  It wouldn’t be difficult technically speaking but would require great courage and a strong will to change the status quo that had become my world of late.  So, I lit the white candle at the alter and I sat down, took a deep breath and closed my eyes.  In moments, I saw two of my guardian angels, Jacob and Aaron.  Jacob asked me if I was ready and I said, “Yes, let’s do this.”   Just then, my beautiful friend white owl showed up.  We climbed on her back and we were off then to soaring through the night sky and then into the mouth of a cave at the bottom of a mountain in the desert.  We were headed to the underworld. 

The underworld is often greatly misunderstood and so let me clarify that by underworld, I do not mean Hell or Purgatory or anything biblical by any stretch.  The underworld is a different plane all-together and is most convenient for inter-dimensional travel when one is properly prepared and guided.  I’ve traveled the underworld a good number of times when called by my intuition to go within and begin “seeking” for answers.  This time, it wasn’t an answer I sought but an aspect.  An aspect of my own existence I could feel living and breathing inside of me…a creation of sorts.  I had created an inter-dimensional being, a monster you might say, one called rage.  She came to see me many years ago and has wreaked havoc with my sanity a time or two over the last ten years but I didn’t know what she was entirely or where she came from.  All I knew was that she was one very powerful creation who captured my attention so completely at times.  When we first met she hit me with energy so hard in my heart I was unable to move.  I faced her briefly but all I held was fear and bewilderment.  I didn’t have the wherewithal at the time to understand.

The last time I saw her I was in meditation and she leaped at me in my mind’s eye and in that moment I both saw and felt the strength of her power.  She was hideous, terrifying, flaming matted red hair, yellow orange eyes, shrieking, long dirty nails, pale bloodless skin and dark stripes that were similar to tribal tattoos.  This was many years ago and I was in no way prepared for that encounter.  I shut down my meditative practice not understanding that I had only just met an aspect of me, a representation of repressed pain, anger and hurt that was left to flounder on its own unrecognized.   When you get closer to peeling away the layers of the beliefs and lies you’ve been handed or created about your own life, sometimes your own shadow sides will call to you.  Mine did and I answered that call.  I understood the hows, the whys and what was that I had to do.

We traveled through the underworld fast but I caught glimpses of the beautiful light, crystals and different worlds carved into the sides of the cave walls that acted much like live picture frames that you could step into.  With my intuition I guided the owl straight ahead to a tiny perfectly round tunnel where I saw moonlight.  Snowy climbed the tunnel for miles until we arrived on a plane that appeared to be not unlike the Earth but it was some place a little different.  The scene was serene but the energy was not at all so I knew we were close.  Up above a night time sky appeared as it would have on Earth and before us a large black glassy lake that reflected the light of twinkling stars now and again.  A great oak tree rose large and looming across a short field of flat grass and I knew somehow that was the meeting place.  We gathered twigs and rocks large enough to make a safe fire ring.  We lit the flame and we waited.  I held hands with my guides and said a prayer that I be given the strength and the courage to hold nothing but love and compassion for the being I needed to meet.  No sooner had I finished the prayer and felt the pure peace of it washing over us when my guest arrived.

She was animal like, lithe like a cat and she suddenly sprang animal like from the darkness to the far side of the campfire’s light.  I spoke to her then, “Come, please, I will not hurt you.”  I could see her eyes glowing in the darkness and I felt her anger hit the space of peace we had created.  Knowing her heart as I did, since it was the one beating inside me, I put more force and focus into expressing love non-verbally from the center of my heart.  I spoke to her again and asked, “Would you like to join us and sit for a time?”  She seemed to bristle a bit but then stood upright taking slow and deliberate steps closer.  She was strong and fearless in her power and Jacob and Aaron both gripped my hands a little tighter no doubt for reassurance.  I spoke to them intuitively to ask them to let go of my hands and just hold a space of love while I worked.

I took a deep breath and visually embraced the fullness of my own creation.  She was terrifying in appearance just like something from a horror movie but I was not afraid.  I'm not exactly sure why.  Maybe it was that  I could feel the heart of her because it was my heart.  I knew she would not hurt me somehow even though she was angry enough to destroy me.  I stood my ground, looked her in the eyes and let loose nothing but the energy of compassion and then I broke the silent tension between us.  I asked her if I could come sit beside her.  She didn’t speak but made it clear by her demeanor she cared not one bit for me.  I knew better but didn't let on.  Bolstered by strength and sheer determination I walked carefully and slowly around the campfire and I sat down next to her.  With everything in me I focused all of the love in my heart on her, surrounding her, supporting her and fully feeling and ultimately knowing her.  I asked her to look at me sensing her great discomfort.  She looked at me with eyes glazed over still angry, still in the fullness of her emotional rage but nonplussed I pushed forward anyway.  I saw the black stripes on her arms and legs, her back, her body and I reached out slowly and touched one on her left shoulder.  It was not a stripe but a scar.  When I touched it and sent it love, it disappeared and the scars in her arm returned to normal looking skin.  She was shocked but felt the healing.

I paused a moment to let her consider the thought I sent her…I can bring you great healing if you would but let me.  She snarled, “Why should I?  You were the one that created me.  You were the one who ignored me, my needs, my desires and left me behind without a single thought or care.  Why in all of God’s creation should I trust you to bring me anything but misery?”  I answered, “Because I created you and I have nothing but love to offer you if you would be willing to explore and to understand all that has truly transpired.  I reached then for her right shoulder and where the scars were I touched them with my hands bright with pink light and her other arm returned to normal.  I did the same when I touched her back and all the scars disappeared replaced by normal looking skin.  When I felt the back of her heart, I knew she wanted nothing but freedom, just like me.  Seizing the opportunity in her moment of doubt, I moved quickly before her and knelt in front of her face to face, surrendering and yet completely in control.

We stared at each other eye to eye for long moments.  I reached out and touched the black mark scars on her forehead and where I gently traced with the intent to heal and ease her pain, they too disappeared just like the others.  She let me then hold her face in my hands and I whispered, “I love you” over and over again until her pale skin changed to pink and scar-less.  I smoothed back the wild flaming hair and at my touch it turned smooth as silk.  She released into me the anger she held and she sat there in the fire as I clothed her and spoke to her softly words of understanding, words of apology, words of honesty and understanding compassion.  She looked me in the eyes completely transformed and she wrapped her arms around my neck and she cried.  She cried for what seemed an eternity and her tears filled the lake behind her and I knew that she created that lake with angry dark tears.  I told her that there was no need to be angry any more.  We talked of specifics, of scenes from the past and in lives past.  I asked her to let me know when she was ready to join with me and become whole once again.  She said she was ready now on one condition.  I agreed and then asked her to state her condition.  She then said, “You must always stand in your own light.”  She held out her hands then and took both of them in mine and we were instantly transported to a place in time I spent as a child.

Outside of a small church located in a local amusement park I had been to many times we materialized.  We sat there in the sunlight under a tree near a lake.  She had transformed the former scene where I had originally found her.  We spoke then of happier times and she relayed to me the things that hurt her, the things that made her angry that later turned to rage.  I helped her understand the truth of things beyond what she perceived as a child, young woman and then later an adult.  In that moment another aspect arrived and then another.  With each we joined together after spending time to understand, cry, laugh in the sunlight and release the smoky untruths we held as perception unquestioned.  We merged then into one being, one heart beat in peace and in love.

The next scene carried an intensely powerful moment with my own mother, of love, of words, of truths in a long line of angry and troubling relations passed from mother to daughter and daughter to mother.  I felt so much love for my own mother, the same love I felt for my daughters and I whispered “The path to healing you mom is to return to your own mother’s love and so on and so on back through time for time is meaningless and proximity is not as important as you think.  I told her I absolved her, loved her and wished her every success in her journey.”  I was pulled then back to my present reality.  With eyes closed still and feeling nothing but peace and love, I thanked the Divine Mother for such a healing journey.  After a moment of silent pure gratitude I opened my eyes. The lone candle burned still flickering in the darkness on the alter, seeing Snowy, Jacob and Aaron fading from my mind’s eye at peace.  Stunned by my own courage, stunned by the depth of my own love I knew the healing of my own shadows had begun and in that healing the real work had begun.

© 2014 Jaie Hart (photo and words)

Breaking Free From the Frame

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I’ve been unable to write for a little while.  I’ve been focused on finishing some things that I started.  In the finishing, I begin to understand what I have truly been trying to learn the whole time.   I go back now to the moment of questioning. In all of my questioning and states of misunderstanding. I realized the question contains also the answer.  This is not my concept but one spoken by many a great teacher.  I just didn't understand it or how it works.

Life seems full of one paradox after another.  The thing you rail against the most is the thing a part of you wishes to embrace.  In other thinking, the things that revolt us in others are the very things that we judge as revolting within us.  The beauty and magic we see in this world can be seen only because those things are within us; a part of us all.   The acts of injustice we cry out the loudest against are acts we too have committed unnoticed perhaps by anyone but our quietest most inner selves in one form or another.  Multiple disciplines can explain to you why.  We can argue semantics into oblivion and it will not change the fact of truth beyond the limits of our manufactured perceptions.  Perception itself is an illusion.

My focus of late has been disentangling myself from the images that others held of me and what it is that I should be to them and for them.  Breaking free from the picture others hold of you and the way you should be in the opinion of others deeply internalized into unconscious belief is no easy thing.  But, I'll tell you something...I love it...the act of breaking free and then knowing that freedom always was and is all there is.  Feeling the truth may be uncomfortable.  So then shall discomfort be the thing I endeavor to embrace always for therein lies my deepest of dreams.  Deconstructing self-manufactured illusion in the absence of understanding is no simple matter.  That is the only thing I know and nothing more but I cannot help but observe the results and how the ego lurks at near every turn to judge this or that as wrong or right; my own very quick to judge me in kind.

I imagined one of my most difficult challenges in all of my existence within this frame very recently.  All of the things I thought it meant in reality turned out to be nothing but smoke and mirrors.  The message, in truth, was created by me for me in an attempt to get me to wake up and see the divine order of things.  Source bless all great teachers recognized and not for the part they played in this most difficult of lessons.  The thing of it is unimportant but the Source of it is perfect as are all things if we could but see with a clear heart and spirit.  I’ve learned that I know nothing about a good number of things and one might think this would be a painful thing but as it turns out, there is a freedom in knowing there isn’t a thing you can be certain of in the outside world.  What we see is merely a projection of what we expect there to be.  But there is more, so much more.   

The pain of shattering illusions is thin and the pressure then builds to shatter some more until there is nothing left but a tiny light in the darkness.  And knowing that tiny light and the darkness are one and the same as are we all-- one and the same.  We just don’t clearly understand how and so fight in our separation, grieve it unconsciously and deliberately until we drain ourselves of precious energy.  Then we may be blessed with a feeling…a feeling so true more than any other and that feeling is a powerful desire to surrender.  To surrender self to Self is an amazing, frightening, exhilarating and terrifying thing all at once.  You’d think it was painful the way we fearfully fight it but it isn’t painful at all.

The process is so liberating, so freeing and when you can find a way to wrestle joyously through the difficulty a subtle shift occurs.  It is so subtle you cannot pin point it easily but then those things that have hidden the truth and blocked the flow of pure love floods the mind, the heart, the spirit and soul.  Again without understanding what’s happening we revert to the familiar fears and controls that got us into the mess we've made of our lives and we stop and start and then stop again.  We reset by questioning what happened and then again that beautiful feeling flows in and says, “Shh, don’t be afraid, trust, go, you know what to do and so go and just Be.”

Our questions tell us the answers.  Our doubts can point to our truth.  We each must find our way there in our own time and know, we have lifetimes.  My most prevalent thought as I consider it all is, “Why wait?”  But take my thoughts with a grain of salt and instead consider your own on any given subject.  What is the subject?  What drew your focus to it to create it?  What did you want to get from it?  What are you getting from it?  Are you getting what you want or need?  Are you satisfied, happy, mad or sad?  Step back and get out of your head for a moment.  Shut down the mind and let the heart find the way.  It knows the way.  Trust that.  Don’t “believe” it.  Belief is nothing.  Knowing is everything.

I’m off to explore now free of the frame.  Blessings of great love, tenderness and strength for your journey beloved souls.  Just remember that everything matters and you are important.  Not in a narcissistic way but in a spiritual way as a blessed part of the Heart of this beautiful, infinite and amazing Whole.

© 2014 Jaie Hart (photo is not mine but a very fortunate internet find: www.mymodernmet.com)

Ode to James Kavanaugh, You'll Always Be Remembered

"I will probably be a searcher until I die and hopefully death itself will only be another adventure. To live any other way seems impossible. If anything has changed over the years, and it has, I only feel more confident now about what I wrote then. I am far more aware of the power that guides each of us along the way, and provides us with the insights and people we need for our journey. There are, indeed, men and women too gentle to live among wolves and only when joined with them will life offer the searcher, step by step, all that is good and beautiful. Life becomes not a confused struggle or pointless pain, but an evolving mosaic masterpiece of the person we were destined to become."

UNAFRAID TO BE FREE

"Finally unafraid to be free,
Ready to surrender all the illusions of
recognition and external securities,
Living off the sky and earth like soaring
eagles and braying burros,
Trusting in a Power even beyond Dow Jones
and hoarded retirement.
Finally ready to live like the noble animal that I am-
Without masters or servants, with dignity dependent on no one,
Content to know that I am God's child, and
only good has been prepared for me.
When I am not afraid to release all that my life
and culture taught me to prize.
To abandon fears once and for all, to discard the
anxieties of a lifetime like a suit that no longer fits,
To be afraid of no one, beholden to no one,
dependent on no one
Save the few who know and love me as I am,
and the God Who alone gives meaning and joy
to the madness of my life."

James Kavanaugh (May you rest in peace beautiful soul)

Excerpts appreciatively excerpted from  http://www.celestineview.com/kavanaugh.htm (much thanks to this site owner for sharing the beautiful works of a beautiful soul).

The Highway of Life

Sometimes the highway seems too much of the same while traveling.  The same white or yellow lines broken up by an overpass now and then or traffic merging on or off.  Sometimes the monotony is broken up by the big white truck ahead of you going 20 mph slower than you were causing you to brake, change lanes, change gears and refocus.  Sometimes I think life is like traveling a highway and we just keep going in the same direction missing the signs, doubling back, going in circles sometimes or missing the scenery and beauty altogether.  There are amazing places to stop and find a road unlike the highway or a place unfamiliar with no roads at all.  There are important things to see along the way too but if we're moving too fast or not paying attention, we'll miss them.

The monotony of life lived day in and day out in the absence of understanding is pain-filled and hopeless having one experience after another judged or perceived exactly the same way you have always judged and perceived.  One day twenty years has gone by and you can’t quite remember exactly how you got there, where ever "there" may be or how you might have missed the things you knew where there all along but never took the time to look for or were afraid to see.  It may seem a morose observation I weave tonight but I assure you it is far from that where I am sitting in this now moment.

In this now moment, I hold tears of joy for discoveries made, lessons finally realized and putting down this ridiculous projection of having to figure it all out myself.  A very dear angel (several actually of late) reminded me I’m not driving this highway alone and in fact, I’ve begun to leave the highway altogether.  There will be no more monotony of ignorance, lacking understanding or sleeping at the wheel.  In this moment a bitter emotion may pass before me a few seconds only to remind me I am in mourning of not one or two but so many illusions.  Even the beliefs I once held have all been blown up by the last emotional land mine I decided to step right on top of.  I sigh a little and then smile at the same time.  Our co-creation here is so far beyond perfect down to the very second of occurrence of everything.

I went for a walk outside with my partner last night and gazed up at a beautiful sky I had all but forgotten existed of late.  So mired in emotion and self-disappointing thoughts I could not articulate or understand.  The clouds were high and thin giving the moon the most ethereal and amazing glow.  In that moment, I had all but forgotten the moments just before when it felt like the last of my world was crumbling with worry, anger and fear.  In that moment I saw my favorite constellation, Orion…Sirius, Rigel…how perfect I thought that they should be overhead at this particular moment.  The walk and the view cleared away so much of the emotion from the mourning of destroyed illusions and disintegrated beliefs.  We must do that at times, mourn the things we’ve given up that we thought we knew or even understood.  It’s part of being human but when the process is done, the moments of greater clarity come and you suddenly realize you’ve lost nothing of importance at all.  But, what you’ve gained on your journey is worth so much more in fact I'd say, "Priceless."

I’m suddenly grateful in this moment to realize how fully I am not on this road trip alone.  I see all of the human and ethereal angels around me who have been so supportive while I make my way through this foggy part of my journey.  I’m grateful for each and every one, so grateful. Thank you, every beautiful one of you.

So, I’ve traded my illusions and traded my beliefs (at least those I am consciously aware of) for nothing but a simple and beautiful barely audible hum of a knowing.  A knowing that there is more, so much more and I cannot settle for what is not meant for me.  I’m free to create things so very differently as always I have been.  I just didn’t know and I didn’t understand.  And now, now the journey truly begins.  I take a deep breath as if I’ve not taken in air for a thousand years and I let it out slowly.  Life is truly amazing as are all of our creations, the dramas and plays, the colors we paint our lives so beautifully with.  Life is a sweet treasure to be fully enjoyed free from anything that traps or binds you and nothing does that more than blindness, ignorance and lack of compassion for self primarily and others too.  It’s time to fly.  Sweet dreams beautiful dreamers.  May the angels surround you with every breath and step.

 

© 2014, Jaie Hart (photo from dreamstime.com)

So It's Over, Now What?

So, it's over, now what?
That thing you thought was everything
Whatever it was and whatever you thought it would be
It's over.
So now what?

Will you lie there defeated, deflated and wounded?
Will you hate, seek revenge, sink to the depths of despair?
Will you calculate, seek to commiserate and drive the wounds in deep?
Are you the victim of a villain?
Are you a victim of circumstance?
What are you in this? 
Have you given it thought?
You look back at the days and weeks
But do you see what happened?
Do you truly comprehend the purpose of the experience?
You didn't want change did you?
You wanted to take this one thing and possess it, hold it there for eternity unchanged
Did you think that was reasonable or realistic to hold a thing static to appease your fears?
Really?  Was that a reasonable expectation towards your serenity?

So, it's over, now what?
Will you sort through the facts or hold to your provisional truths
So carefully created with environmental and spiritual psychology?
Will you stand in the darkness?
If so, for how long?
What will it take to propel you toward your intended transcendence?
What will it take to reveal your own hand in your seeming undoing?
Think about it.
Things in this world do not happen to you randomly to wreck your world while you're out there just trying to have a good time.
Things in this world you experience are created by you, for you
Either consciously or unconsciously.

So, it's over, now what?
Is it time yet to look again
And see what was really there in the absence of hate and fear or rejection?
Is it time yet to embrace the lesson you  just couldn't see?
Is it time yet to wake from your deep and dark slumber?
It can be if you want it to be.

So, it's over, now what?
Can you take the steps towards the light on your own two feet?
Can you realize you created the scene so perfectly?
Can you comprehend the bad thing can be a good thing in terms of your own soul's growth?
You can but free will dictates that concept, that pure and beautiful action
Is entirely up to the manner of your choosing.
You can remain mired in the darkness
And like a black whole let it suck all the life out of everyone and everything to validate you and vindicate you from responsibility…
Or, you can seek the deeper meaning, gain understanding and embrace the change
That was inevitable to bring alignment with your soul's trues desire.

So, it's over, now what?
Stand up, live, love and breathe...
You are that powerful and there is nothing
Or anyone that can truly take you down but you.
So, it's over, now what are YOU going to do for YOU?

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© 2009, Jaie Hart (photo, moneynow.com)