So Tell Me Not About the Weather - But About How You Perceive It

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The quality of light is slightly different at 6:45 am when it’s already 79 degrees Fahrenheit than on a day that has started out at say, maybe, 60 degrees or below, I’ve noticed.  I’m not sure why that is.  Certainly there must be some scientific explanation that might serve as suitable enough a description to satisfy an inquiring mind such as mine? 

Alas, however, I am not a scientist but a philosopher and it is not may way to grab hold of scientific knowledge to tout it about but rather to take it in if and only if it might serve in some way to improve or challenge my understanding of a thing.  To describe my sunny observation of these hot days I have to go into a method of using the words inside of my mind to attempt to convey the richness of the hues, the golden ever so slightly rosy tint of silver everything seems etched in on the early morning of a very hot day and realize this scene and its accompanying set of associated feelings is not something we all notice very often if at all.  I notice it only because I am an early riser and I see this on every very warm day.  Sometimes my perception is accompanied by a neutral nonchalance while at others, a fair bit of trepidation as my mind runs simulations of the days' potential events and future potential resulting feelings.

We’ve been unseasonably hot with much humidity of late in my part of the world but I’m not really here to talk about the weather.  I’m here to talk about the human condition and leading up to that moment when we encounter something we just simply think we can bear not even one more single moment of.  What then do we do?  I suppose our individual environmental psychology might take over then and dictate how we will handle ourselves when the weather is so hot and we’re not used to it.  For many of us, we’re likely to feel quite miserable and no doubt that misery is likely to be shared with all in even remote proximity is some way.  Perhaps we are grumpy and frowning or elated and joyful with the warmth?

Unfortunate or fortunate as that may seem there is something I wish to convey in order for you to consider.  No matter what we face here, life on Earth is tenuous at best.  Our consciousness however, is not.  Many moons ago on a hot summer day I learned about consciousness in a different way and I’ll never forget what I learned.  The impact that learning had on my awareness has nagged me for nearly 20 years and so it is not so surprising I guess that I’m awake staring into the darkness, noticing the stars and the fact that it is still 79-80 degrees Fahrenheit at precisely 5:38 am and I’ve got a full day of yoga training ahead of me.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the mind is so very powerful as is our ability to perceive and make choices.  Although so much seems so involuntary, it isn’t.  Maybe we can’t instantaneously and miraculously change the weather in an instant but we can choose whether we feel good or horrible about it and in so doing, changing our experience and how the experience is written into the archives of the soul that bears witness to everything we experience here incarnate and beyond.  And through the soul peers the observer that holds nothing other than its drive towards existence in the absence of judgement…a curiosity or knowningness perhaps that regardless of heat or not, the individual is going to be okay no matter how he or she perceives, reacts or does not react to a thing or situation.   

When I look at the day ahead this way, It doesn’t much matter to  me whether it is hot or cold.  It matters to me that I learn to understand the data I take in consciously and sort out that taken in unconsciously and then choose my perceptions and experiences carefully.  I also think it is important that I consider well my own ability to help me see my own way home and I’m talking about the home inside of me no matter where I am or go or exist.  I exist.  Smiling at that, I leave you with wishes for a beautiful day.


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© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

 

The Right Premise- What is That?

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

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

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

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

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

© Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Solar Return in Gratitude

One more turn

At the wheel of life

And so we go,

Each of us

On our own journeys

 Some in resonance

And some in dissonance

But each goes perfectly regardless 

Life is never without

Its ups and downs

But it is you who determines

The depths of the pain

Or the heights of elation 

Choose wisely my friends

For life is very much like the microcosm

Represented in this play we assume roles in here 

It's a great place in which

We endeavor to learn

Both inside and outside

The various firewalls

We create in his place

But what about the next and the next? 

So much have we to contemplate

But let us never forget

To enjoy the comfort of friendship

Or to ignore the disdain of the toxic

Life lesson teachers. 

Everything can be perfect

I dare say it is perfect

Even if it takes us

Our hindsight to see it

Much further down the road 

I thank you my friends

And my enemies alike

For it is your love

And your hatred

Two sides - same coin

That has taught me

All of these years past

And that will continue

In the years to come 

I am infinitely grateful

For your presence

In Gratitude and may you be

Forever blessed…

 

© 2015 Jaie Hart (Photo/words)

Grandma's Porch

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In just a few days’ time, I will have completed my 49^th year on planet Earth in our Milky-way Galaxy and will enter into the cycle of endeavoring to complete my 50^th year.  I’m quite thoughtful this time of year for many reasons and I’ll share something personal with you that I’ve shared near every year for the past 22.  My father died on September 14, 1993 just 15 days after his 48^th birthday.  When I had completed my 48^th year last year, it struck me with a great well of sadness that I would see more here in this beautiful world than my father had the opportunity to do.  Once again my soul is gripped with this thought and the emotion that comes so strongly with it.  Tomorrow would have been his 70^th Birthday. 

It is in tribute to my Father and his Birthday that I reflect here this morning.  I’m grateful that I knew him even for the short time I did.  The 22^nd anniversary of his departure from this plane approaches.  I’ve done somethings he’d have been so proud of.  So many moons ago, on a day like today or a night like the last, we’d have sat on Grandma’s porch and gazed at the stars contemplating the myriad theories and philosophies of existence, shooting stars, consciousness and our origins.  These are things I dearly love today.  From those very precious conversations while my mind was still so young and impressionable was born a true love of philosophy and a dire need for Marianna’s Trench deep conversation and continuous learning just to really feel goodness and true beauty of life.

There was nothing superficial about my father.  He was authentic, so very sensitive on the inside and so very strong on the outside.  He was so wise in so many unbelievable things that I was always awestruck by the thoughts in his head that he readily shared with me.  Life kept me so very busy in his last years that I never got the chance to tell him how much those conversations on Grandma’s porch meant to me.  I never got to tell him how much I loved his philosophical conversations.  He’ll never know that he was the impetus that drove me to continuously seek knowledge and understanding of everything under this sun.  Not that I know it all now for the further I go, surely I have discovered I know nothing but the fact that there is so much I have yet to learn.  But even that is a wondrous gift.  For in that mere understanding I realize I still have time to seek and to learn and to dig deeper into the heart of our existence and to share what I have learned as he so willingly and lovingly shared with me.

And all of this was born from so many childhood conversations when most thought I was too little or too young to understand.  At six years old we sat there on Grandma’s porch and watched the stars and talked about physics and astronomy.  At 9 years old we sat there and talked on hot summer nights about anything and everything in life.  At 12 years old we’d sit on the porch and watch the pouring rain, hear the thunder boom and roar and watching the lightning crackle across the sky with the excitement of two children where only one stood.  At 21 years of age, we’d share a beer and talk about the philosophy of anything and everything – from human behavior, to ancient astronauts, to astronomy and the many theories of our human origins.  I'd later in life learn that so many learned scholars know what my father intuitively knew.  My father never went to college.  He seemed to intuitively know everything about everything and I was so blessed to be his daughter.

In tribute I’d like to share some words just for him whether he sees them or not, I do know that he’ll feel them some how.  So, Dad, where ever it is that you are now – although my heart still aches from missing you and I can hardly see the screen on my computer to type this annual share in tribute to your life and to my complete gratitude that you existed for the short time you did here, I just want to thank you for the time that you spent here with me on Earth.  I just want you to know that I loved you above all else and that I deeply appreciate how difficult your life was but want to honor you for completing the toughest job of raising not one but two head strong kids pretty much on your own in the crazy world that we lived in.  You did a really great job and you were a really great dad.  You were and will always be like Superman to me (dad did love those comics).  Thank you Dad.  I love you and Happy Birthday.

 

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© 2015 Dr. J.L. Harter aka Jaie Hart (photo:  Google images edited by me)

Malware in the Conscious Operating System

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

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

noun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photo/words)

Random Thoughts Over Coffee

The sun is creeping up behind the buildings across the way while the birds are sweetly singing. A beautiful summer morning to behold yet again, I think silently sipping my coffee. So, why is this nagging trepidation settling in over my soul? The Earth has felt so hot, scorched to the point the grass is dying, the flowers are gone and well established trees now struggle to live in my part of the world. How long before people truly begin to realize we’ve taken Her for granted. By Her I speak of our beautiful Mother Earth. Without her, we could not live. She gives us water to drink, supplies from which we build our shelters, our businesses, our automobiles and trains and all the stuff that make up the comforts of our lives. All of this life we have teaming around us includes that which we have been so generously and benevolently given and yet all we seem to do is take – take and consume – and take some more. I am not innocent. I too must learn. But I see and feel and now I write.

As I sit here with my thoughts I have to ask, have we taken now too much without sufficient effort to replenish? Is this what we are seeing all over the world or is it simply some random cyclical journey we have yet to fully realize because no race before has lived for as long? It doesn’t take much now to notice the civilizations that came before or the realization that they were a bit more civilized than we may have given them credit for. Their technology potentially by far more advanced in some ways that we just can’t quite even figure out yet. Maybe they too ran into a cyclical cataclysm of unstoppable events that began with them and we to will met our end as did they.

Maybe that is yet our future too and one-day strangers sifting through our ruins will wonder about what we thought important as artifact after artifact is pulled from the rubble. But what about right now? Do we have to live so carelessly? I witness the wrong decisions time and time again if there is any objective of sustainability of the populations to come on this planet. We have technology but refuse to use it and instead we favor the limited sources that grow in value as their stores diminish. Is that the point? Is that really best that humanity can come up with? Will we tire and deplete Her resources to the point there is no turning back? We already have in some places. We have destroyed that which cannot be immediately repaired, replaced or in other ways, brought back. Is it already too late for us and have we robbed our children of tomorrows without even comprehending how? We refused to listen to those hippie environmental kooks who couldn’t possibly know anything right?

How do we get the population to care more about future sustainability than a buck to fleetingly feed or entertain you to ease your boredom for just a moment when you are destroying lands and ecologies that could have fed yet for lifetimes? Those hippie Kooks should have been listened to from the beginning if you ask me. Their hearts were not motivated by greed but by love for the very land we walk upon. We must find a reason to care. Like it or not, we are in this together. We can remain divided on causes and solutions. We can pursue the mighty dollar over humanity and nature and in the end we’ll all just die any way so what does it matter? It matters right now, it will matter for those who come after. We cannot hate or deter those who destroy and do only what they know how to do as their fathers had done. We can only attempt to peaceably teach or we become them in other ways we would not truly wish to be.

I listen now to the birds singing happily in the trees outside. Beautiful life giving trees, old, beautiful still and thirsty. They thirst. We thirst. All of life matters…our trees and plants, humanity – we are all part of life and we all matter. Let us find ways to coexist without doing harm, with a sense of pride in preservation of nature, of life and let us endeavor to create more sustainable existence for ourselves now and for those who will follow. This isn’t just our Earth after all. It belongs to the children of our children’s children. We must think not just of ourselves in these matters or there will be no place for them in the future and that would be tragic. If you care, find a way to get involved – support no fracking, support planting trees, support solar energy, support alternative modes of transportation when you can, strive to make even a small effort to leave a smaller foot print. Every single effort you consciously take matters. Thank you for listening. I love this Earth and I care about humanity. I have every faith that we can do by far much better than what we have done. I want to believe in a brighter tomorrow and that there will be a land that our children’s children will enjoy laughing and playing upon as well as thrive. Maybe it is a silly dream but it is real and I’ll never give up on it. No. Not ever.

© 2015 Jaie Hart

The Urge to Stand - the Urge to Live

I remember a moment as a very young girl where I witnessed an important life lesson in progress. Of course at the time the message was quite lost on me as I was quite lost in a very special moment. A long time ago there was a little place called the Japanese Village and Deer Park in Buena Park, California. It was at this beautiful little park that I first came face to face with a little fawn and its first breath of life. The sunlight as I remember it was perfectly shining, with the beautiful Japanese manicured gardens and a wonderful cool breeze as a backdrop. My parents brought us there a few times and I recall it being a favorite of mine. I love the gentleness of the does and absolutely adored the little playful fawns. On one trip one little fawn was born right in front of me. I remember thinking how amazing it was and how cute it was.

My parents were a bit horrified but quickly explained something natur-ific and distracting that was their way and they went about their business. They didn’t see what I saw because they didn’t understand or fully appreciate the entirety of the beauty we had just witnessed. My focus went right back to the little fawn with my questions most immediately answered. Only moments after birth I was stunned that the little fawn on its long clumsy limbs was trying so hard to stand. It was amazing to me that urge to stand and that urge stuck with me in that moment all the way up until this present day. Throughout all of my days since then have I seen that very same urge to stand (or urge to live) in everything I have encountered here on our beautiful planet Earth.

At so many stages in the life of a human being after its initial physical birth is that human being then reborn over and over again as he or she learns something new, tests it out (tries to stand) and attempts to work meaning into their lives. Whenever we are knocked down by something it seems our first inclination is to stand again. There is always that urge to stand, that urge to live and that urge to prevail. It is innate to our being and nature. But that nature can be broken. And it is a sad and heart wrenching day to see it broken. When a human being loses its urge to stand and just gives up, it breaks my heart. I’ve seen that much in my life I suppose and it’s always been sad to me. I know that feeling of not wanting to get up after being knocked down one too many times. But, there is that little urge inside me that no matter how tired or frustrated I get, will not allow me to stay down and I will follow the urge to stand even if on broken seeming limbs some times because at some level I know that my life depends on it.

I think that urge to live is the spirit of the heart of all of us that knows that everything ultimately is going to be all right. Sometimes you may have to exercise a heck of a lot of patience to come to this realization but if you hold the faith it will come, it WILL come. I learned this lesson watching a beautiful gentle doe give birth to a beautiful little fawn nearly 50 years ago. That life lesson will never leave me and always will I try to share that knowledge and beauty with others – that urge to stand no matter what is the beautiful part of our being and should be embraced. The part of us that sometimes wants to give up is also a beautiful part of our being and just needs to be better accepted and understood. Never lose your urge to rise or to live.
 
Life is infinitely beautiful if you can find a way, even if a very small way to see it. If you try and it all still seems dark – find yourself someone who can see to help you look for it. You’ll then find again that resident urge and it’s beauty, strength and wonder will have you rising to face the amazing wonder that truly is your life. Blessings.

© 2015 Jaie Hart (photos of the Deer Park copy right unknown).