Carl Bozeman, Author at Carl Bozeman

April 3, 2011

Honesty – Do You Tell the Truth or Does the Truth Tell You?

From the moment of our birth onward over the span of our human sojourn, we are conditioned to be other than what we truly are. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in our general understanding and subsequent expression of honesty.

We are all liars. In fact, we are so good at lying, many of us will take offense at such an accusation, but perhaps more importantly, we have become so good at it we don’t even know it. Our conditioned nature has us convinced that our little withholdings and untruths are necessary to negotiate the collective human condition. We even come up with metaphors to express this conditioning even though we will not acknowledge the pervasive nature of our lies. We say things like half truths or little white lies to soften the blow, so to speak, so that our fragile egos do not have to face the fact that we are indeed liars. Collectively, we have come up with terms such as spin and techniques have been developed to divert the collective attention away from the truth.

We even accept that certain groups such as lawyers or politicians are dishonest and that is just the way it is. We will support individuals representing a political view, but overlook that they fall into a faction we know (and accept) as dishonest. We will even defend them to the point of anger or rage if they are attacked by another individual who is supported by a faction representing an opposing political view. Individually and collectively we have become defenders of our dishonesty.

Egoically, we have even gone so far as to determine that no individual ego, whether child or adult, should ever be told where they have missed the mark or fallen away from a particular guideline, without following up with where they have done well. Well, we don’t want to hurt any feelings now, do we? We are so concerned about preservation of feelings (ego), that we cannot speak the truth, or as we might say, the whole truth. It is interesting that we have books titled Radical Honesty, proposing that what was once simple honesty has become so elusive that telling any truth has now become radical. In other words, we have conditioned ourselves into the proverbial corner, that honesty is no longer the best policy, rather it has become the exception to the rule, both individually and collectively.

Perhaps in no other aspect of the human experience will it be more apparent how difficult it will be to alter this current conditioning. We have completely given way to the idea that feelings should not be hurt. We must conduct our lives in such a way that only the softest of blows are ever exacted against our own and other egos. The loss or damage of self-esteem is untenable in any circumstance. In other words, tell the truth if you can, lie if you must, but always spare the ego – always!

Gateway to Inner Knowing

If we can learn to listen to our inner talk, we can begin to notice the deceptions playing out in our minds. If we listen carefully, we can catch ourselves every time we tell a lie and hopefully, in time, catch it before we express it outwardly. In so doing, our dishonesty can become a window into the nature of our conditioning. It can become the way back to a life of integrity and truth. It is through that same window that we can begin to see once again our divine self. The who of our existence rather than the what the ego creates. Once found, we see life as it was before our conditioning took over our awareness.

Who you are always comprehends honestly. Finding who you are is the way out of the darkness of a life that is cloaked in a false illusion and untruth. In fact, it is the only way to have a life that is fully aware of something beyond our limited and egoic view of it.

It is seeing without eyes, hearing without ears. It is a life only a god could know.

March 20, 2011

Choices: You Choose, or Do You?

Life is not really about the choices we make. It is, rather, about repeating what actions to take which we have been conditioned to take. The so-called knowledge we gather is nothing more than an adding to the base of criteria we are taught to use to create our so-called choices.

When we are born into this world, we are born without conditions of any kind. Some of us even remember, as small children, that our lives were lived, not as decisions to make, but more as taking in as much as we possibly could, without having to decide if something was good or bad. We lived our passion, and moved from one thing to another, driven only by curiosity, wonder and awe! Life was not about choosing. Instead, it was a series of experiences, unjudged by any set of rules or guidelines. We simply experienced our experience. What happened? Why did this non-judgmental experience go away?

From the moment of our birth, the human process of conditioning us begins. With that conditioning, we are taught preferences and the reasoning behind those preferences. We become so adept at that reasoning that, in time, we no longer really choose. Of course we say we do, but the reasoning we are taught to judge between things always steers us to make “not” real decisions, but more a series of the same actions with only circumstances and scenery being different. In reality, what we think are choices are really nothing more than a repetitive sort of a variation on a theme. A theme we enact every day as a way to confirm over and over again that the choices we make are well thought out and correct. When we look out at the world at large, what we see confirms this to us, when, in fact, we haven’t really chose anything at all. All we have done is what we have always done before. All of it is based on conditioning that took over our minds so long ago that most of us have no memory of it.

Day by day, we simply act out what we think we know without deciding anything. choices Most of us, regardless of how we define success or failure, or the levels of human experience we achieve, always move in the direction we have always moved in. We may raise the bar and achieve so-called greater heights, but it is, more or less, variations on the same reasoning theme we have always used.

Who among us turns down a job or promotion so that the job can go to the individual we know could perform it so much better? Our reasoning, the so-called intelligence and knowledge, we claim to possess practically forbids us from ever making that kind of decision, and yet among the truly real decisions, that one really is a choice!

Most of us have forgotten how to live spontaneously, guided only by our intuition and sheer appreciation for every exhilarating moment life has to offer. Instead of living and enjoying each breathless moment in time, we try to control it with our reason. We have reduced an expansive, endless experience to a small, little place we uphold with our minds. We play it safe by our reason and our so-called choices become nothing more than barriers holding us back from the larger reality we knew as children but have completely forgotten as adults.

We think we choose but we do not. We repeat over and over again what our conditioning tells us is acceptable, and in so doing we stay confined within that tiny, little world we have created for ourselves.

Life was never meant to be about choosing. Life is about living – living without fear of our decisions.

Each of us needs to challenge every choice we “think” we make in light of the awareness that what we typically do is what we always do anyway and then do the opposite. That is a real choice and a real challenge, not unlike, the way we went about our lives as little children. It has been said that “awareness” creates (real) choices but in truth awareness really opens us to the wonders of existence, which are always before us if we let go of our reasoning and judgments. Ultimately, when the awareness of “who we are” becomes apparent to us an existence of so-called choices disappears and is replaced by a life of spontaneity, wonder and awe. We find ourselves always moving in the direction of who we are and life seemingly unfolds around that. Pretty cool!

January 1, 2011

A Rift in Illusion – My Father

Few of us ever escape the chains of our reality and see beyond the forms before us. We mire in our knowledge and all the things we gather to us, forming a shell that hardens with time. For me, I have seen past it only a few times and always in the strangest of ways.

He came to me so subtly and he was hardened by a life of struggle and hardship that was so developed his own mind no longer doubted the truth of anything he said. His was a life of total fantasy and yet it was through this hardness and fantasy that I would see far beyond this earthly view. He was the catalyst for a rift that broke through all my illusions and perhaps, his own. I think he knew it himself but any expression of it had to pass through the shell of his imagination of which little if anything was believable. It would be his secret, but not without first finding a way to peer out into horizons which are rarely known but always there.

We all walk alone through this life even though we are surrounded by others on every side. They, too, harbor the depths of loneliness and fear we all feel but neatly tucked away inside us. We wear our masks and wrap ourselves tightly in the things that best cover us from exposure to a brighter light. It is the nature of humans. Beasts of the field who walk stoically into life afraid to show how truly scared and alone they are. We are taught to survive no matter the cost. Spare no one or thing in preserving that which you are. The strong survive and the cost to the weak is of no consequence. This we must do and yet in some there arises the awesome awareness that it is not just the “man” that is important, but that life, all of life, is. For some, the rift allows just enough light to shine through that we sense something greater than mere survival. We turn to the light and see that we can survive without the “need” to survive. We no longer need to run to or from life gathering as we go. All we need is to walk with it and life itself becomes the giver.

I saw this rift in a hospital room with a man, my Father, whose hardened life would take pause and see something far beyond the things and forms of normal life. Most of my time with him was spent listening to his illusion of the events of his life. Even in my own illusion his life, his illusion, was incomprehensible. He was an enigma of the highest order. Some might say crazy. Yet he could not be more certain or proud of the life he lived. I envied him. It was, like most of us, the unexamined life. Safe, but edgy. Dramatic but fun. Full in every way, even if it was imaginary. I resigned myself to never knowing any of his history that began when I last saw him as a boy and when I met him a year ago. A history that would span over fifty years, now buried in the recesses of an imagined life. That part of him is and always will be a mystery. A parenthesis in time with no explanation.

I didn’t know just how short his time would be in that hospital room. Nothing indicated he was about to go. But I should have known, I guess because he did a most unusual thing. He lifted his left hand upon which he wore a ring. In the short time that I knew him, I had never seen him without it. He wore it on his ring finger even though he had been divorced and single most of his life.

He removed the ring from his finger and handed it to me with the admonition to “make sure you give this to the boy.” I asked, “Which boy are you talking about?” He replied earnestly, “You know the boy… Oh, what’s his name…? Oh, Carl.” I asked, “Carl who?” My father many times would speak directly to me about me which was one of many things about him I found so charming and fun. I often would remind myself that his memories of me must have been of that 7-year-old boy he left just as my memories of him were of a younger, more vibrant, beautiful man. We both retained our earlier images of each other and in one sense, he was talking to that little boy by way of the man he had become. These were always sweet exchanges.

He responded “You know…. Carl.” “But I’m Carl,” I replied and he said, “I know.” He added, “Make sure the boy wears that ring, it’s magic. It will protect him and he will never want of anything. Just make sure he gets it.” I responded, “Okay, I’ve got it.” He again reiterated the ring was special and would protect the boy. I should’ve known he was telling me good-bye and passing along to me something he cherished and wanted his boy to have. It was a tender moment. It was also a profound telling of what was to come that I should have recognized but missed completely.

It was also in this moment that I saw him as he was before his shell had formed. Sweet, kind, gentle. That is what showed through that rift. Then almost inexplicably, he spoke softly and solemnly. “I’m so sorry for what I did to you kids.” He shook his head and looked as if he would cry. “I’m so, so sorry,” he said again. I looked at him and he at me and that’s when he cracked wide open. The light shined through and the mask of his life fell away. I saw him not as man but as God. There were others there with him but his light reached out and grabbed me, filled me, and then lifted me – and then it was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. He looked at me and smiled as if he knew just how much he had opened up. Through his smile and with a glint in his eye, he winked and said simply, “That’s enough.” I wanted to shake him but I knew the rift had closed. That was the last time I saw him alive. He passed quietly, shell and all.

I returned to the hospital after the call came in and as I sat beside his lifeless but still warm body, I filled again, only this time with a rush of emotion and sadness. He had left again as he had before. It was sudden, unexpected, and without explanation. This time, however, I saw into him in a way I could not as a boy. As I sat there holding him in that quiet room I saw him flying, as it were, on the wings of Eagles soaring free, at last, from the darkness of his mind. He was at peace and wore the expression on his lifeless face. Looking back just a few hours earlier his smile said it all and I know, even now, he is not gone. He, in fact, surrounds me in every way, only now it is pure light without the dreams and fantasy. It is a brilliant light indeed.

Life is sometimes perceived as desolation. A hard journey through a maze of missteps, broken dreams, struggle and sadness. It is like a maze through which we struggle to get through. In time we become the maze and it becomes us, but all the while we move on. We choose life in spite of the troubles along the way. That is life’s relentless pull on all of us. We are life’s creators. We uphold it as we have learned to perceive it. It never is as we think it is even if we see its awesomeness. Life is always more grand and wonderful than the physical eyes through which we view it. It took knowing him before I knew this.

I had waited as a boy first, then an adolescent, and then as an adult, for my Father to appear. But when he did, it was unlike anything I imagined it would be. I created my own illusion of what this visitor, must be when he did appear and the weight of it pressed down on me inexorably. My illusion of him was a grand one. When he did appear, he was simple, broken, and feeble but he carried an unseen power that put into question everything I thought I knew and most certainly everything I had imagined. He was indeed grand but in his way, not mine. The small was made great, the weak strong. He was unafraid of the immensity of the universe and in showing me, I too became unafraid.

My father stepped across a great abyss and in the grandeur of those last few moments, he simply turned his head toward me and smiled. The rift between what he was and what he became had been breached. With a smile and a wink, I looked into eternity and saw again the worth of souls. Together, for just that moment, we looked out into infinity and his light became one with my own. I am not the same.

September 4, 2010

“You” The Divine

The greatest misconception of the concept of divinity is that it typically excludes us as divine.

We are gods endowed with more greatness and power than any God we can create in our minds. Within each of us is the divinity, power and energy we ascribe to our mind-made gods.

We have simply forgotten that godlike part of ourselves that can perceive all things and comprehend every aspect of our energetic natures. Intuitively, we all know that we are the God we seek, and that we are of godly nature, but we have accepted a lesser view of ourselves.

Any search for God is a search for the self we have buried in the process of our lives. Much of our lives are spent learning and accepting a three dimensional understanding of the world we live in. As such, we are conditioned to look outward for interventions by entities we have created who are capable of the god-like nature we seek to become ourselves. In looking outward to such a being, we often succumb to the idea that we can never be so. In fact, in Christianity, it is believed that we can in no way be saved without the intervention of Jesus, who saves us from our lowly status, without whom there is only damnation and suffering following this life.

We are our own saviors. The only place God exists that any of us need to be aware of and continuously develop is inside each of us.

May 2, 2010

Do We Create Our Own Reality?

I was recently asked this question by someone who visited my website: http://www.spiritual-intuition.com:

How is it possible that we “create” our own reality or experience? If this is the case, then it follows that the mind is all-powerful. If this is not the case, then it follows that what the mind creates just distorts reality, blocking out “that which is.”

Just a question I wanted to ask you, because this seems to be a popular assertion based on my explorations of current and successful authors and teachers on the web, and the entries currently on our site (www.truthcontest.com) say the exact opposite, that reality is “that which is,” not our mind’s creation. Here is my response:

We do create our own experience. When the newborn child you mentioned enters this earthly existence, it is the result of, or creation by, the spiritual being (I call it god) who will occupy that body and grow with it into whatever. What happens for all newborns is that after the initial excitement of the birth the adults in the new baby’s life begin to reprogram the child into seeing things the way they were taught to see. After about ten to fifteen years of this, the child embarks on a life that confirms and reinforces what they were previously conditioned to see, accept and/or believe.

This is why I say we live in an illusion. It does not start out that way but all the experiences, training, etc. that go into making us who we are as “humans” cancels out what, in fact, we truly are and what we were when we first got here. Newborn babies have no egoic identity whatsoever, and therefore everything in and about life is wondrous and incredible to them.

Mind based thoughts are powerful but spirit based creative powers are much more so. In fact, the suffering of most humans can be tied directly to the struggle between “what” they are (or were when they got here) and what they have been conditioned to be after they arrived. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is that in the United States (true for other western countries as well) over 70% of the working population hate what they do as a career but for most who are unhappy in their career field they were conditioned to go down this path contrary to their nature which craves something else. How sad for us!

You mention the mind being all-powerful (rhetorical) but let me be very specific. We are each two individuals. The “mind” created individual and the spiritual being, or what I call god, that dwells within us. Those first few years you mention are so critical in the development of a child’s mind because what we are conditioned to believe initially will mask what we really are for the rest of our lives. Very few will break free of the conditioning they undergo and return back to the “unidentified” being they were when they came here.

Our lives here should not be about finding purpose and meaning but rather about finding who we are. In finding that, and synching the mind to our spiritual nature, life unfolds in a very un-conflicted way. “We”, that is the real “We” we were before we got here, is made manifest and life, our creation, unfolds in a way that reveals that being. There is power in our thoughts but our thoughts, as rational as we like to think they are, are anything but.

From the moment of our birth, we are taught to want and have and possess to the point that when we “get” we completely identify ourselves with all the things we have gotten. Life becomes, in essence, a continuous pursuit of things the getting of which is what we falsely believe, make us who we are. An example is I can be “me” after I get my college education or when I get this particular job or career or when I get this particular house, etc., etc. We literally identify with “what we are not” and determine that until we get (what we are not) we are not complete. This is craziness. Until we re-access that divine being that dwells within us we create a reality that is as wild and crazy as the one we live in now.

The beauty of the un-identified newborn baby is that in their creation everything is simply WOW! (good article on this at http://cbozeman.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/the-frequency-of-wow/). There are no judgments about anything and the entry into life is incredible in every way. No judgments is the key. With a mind free of judgment or identity, everything just simply is. Children “act” without thinking and do so until we as adults condition them to judge everything. Life slowly but surely loses its Wow-ness.

Bottom Line is that when a newborn comes into this life its body is occupied by a “god” who has already created the experience of being here for no other reason than just being here. That god is thrilled and everything about the experience is exhilarating until the “human” has been conditioned to judge good and evil and place every life experience from that point on into a good or bad range. Ego identity takes over and from that point, life experience becomes confused and challenging. It was never meant to be so.

In a nutshell, we create our experience but it is either a mind created experience or a “spiritual being” created experience. Unless the mind experience is in synched up with the spiritual experience there will always be conflict. The two typically see things in a very different way and “identify” with reality accordingly. The mind has become powerful but it is not “all powerful.” The mind is finite. The spirit is infinite. We, individually, are the purpose we seek and try to create with the mind. All we have to do is turn off the mind, dis-identify with the things it (the mind) has determined are necessary for its identity and simply enjoy the richness and wonder of this life experience. When we let go of “mind” created identity the wonder and spectacle of life opens up in a way I cannot possibly explain here. It truly is unexplainable.

The god that you are “created” this experience long before you arrived here on Earth. The mind identity fights against that original purpose. Find the inner self and you will begin to recognize the awesome power of your own creation. Pretty cool!

April 19, 2010

Non Consciousness, consciousness and unconsciousness

In our three-dimensional reality awareness gets reduced to either non-consciousness, consciousness or unconsciousness. In the non-conscious state, we sense the world through our bodies. Every cell in our bodies is a receptacle for millions and millions of pieces of information streaming in from the environment. It is total awareness of everything going on at every level possible in the human including the spiritual or soul level. It includes the five sense stimulation but none of the other inputs are overwhelmed by physical sensing and no sorting or discarding of information takes place. Only intuitive sensing is taking place and sureness of situations and surroundings is all that is known.

We almost never reach this state or perhaps it is better to say we almost never “return” to this state. The process of becoming adults in our three-dimensional reality pushes us into consciousness and most of our ability to sense the world at the higher level of “non-consciousness” is forgotten. Consciousness is the narrowing of non-conscious awareness down to a very focused “few pieces” of information that becomes what we sense as the world around us. It is a limited view of the world and is mostly only known through the five physical senses we all possess.

In consciousness, we filter out the greater part of life that is streaming in at a phenomenal rate every second. Consciousness is limited awareness because of this filtering. Even at that, the view of reality through the five senses is an incredible view. There is beauty all around and we can see it in the particular way our senses and conscious filtering has been conditioned to see it. It might be said that the filtering of consciousness is the result of our unique conditioning that began at birth and has been a process of reaffirming that awareness ever since. Consciousness is a degradation of non-consciousness and unconsciousness is a degradation of consciousness.

Unconsciousness happens when our consciousness is overwhelmed by our identity with the illusory world of consciousness. In other words, we become so fixated on the illusion of consciousness that we grab hold of everything we think is important and hold on to it as if our very lives depended on it and to let go or have these things taken from us sets in motion all the crazy “goings on” we can attribute to the current and ongoing “human condition.” Aggressively we go after those things perceived to be important and fearlessly we hold on to them once we have them. This becomes our identity and almost the reason for living. We give so much of our energy to it.

Consciousness gets buried in this struggle and non-consciousness all but disappears. At this point, life becomes a getting and having instead of living and all that that entails gets lost in the shuffle. Most of us exist somewhere between the conscious and unconscious states of awareness. At times we are moved at the beauty and wonder we sense through our physical states but ultimately we revert back to the “other” things our unconsciousness has identified with and we go back to the life of getting and having.

Somehow we must come to realize that nothing in this life is ever ours. We really don’t “need” anything. There is never a need to get ourselves into a state that we must get so we can have. Our inherent nature, the part of us that is non-conscious, has abundance power and awareness that dwarfs anything we could possibly want or have in this life. The universe is ours. We created it and no one “needs” of anything when we realize our divine natures.

To be conscious we need to dis-identify with those things we think make us who we are and let go of all the baggage of life that makes us unconscious. To be non-conscious we need to reconnect to that divine part of ourselves that is aware of everything. It is an infinite awareness. It is the playground of gods!

March 30, 2010

Confession

The idea of confession is another device that causes us to look outward for inward solutions. To confess one’s sins, as it were, to someone we consider to have the ability to absolve us is contrary to what Jesus taught us. No one can forgive save God and the only confessing we need do is to Him or Her. As we are the gods we seek. The creator of our own experience, then true confession must be directed inward to ourselves.

True confession is owning up to the reality that our condition, our reality is different, distant and out of sync with who we really are. We are divine beings, gods, having a human experience. Our only confession should be to the inner knowing god, that in our petty reality, that what we have let ourselves become, is not the divine beings we truly are. When we recognize the difference between our earthly state and the “god” that we are then we look no more to outside sources to absolve us. Instead, we connect to the true source of power that exists individually within us and with new eyes, we look outward only to see how different we are from the rest of those who continue to look outward for solutions to the state they find themselves in.

Confessing one’s sins to a priest, friend, doctor or family member is a shallow release compared to looking at ourselves as the identity we have created versus our true divine nature. Who can absolve God? The question is not meant to imply there is a God out somewhere in the heavens waiting to judge us. It is meant to point each of to look inwardly to the god that we are. When we recognize our divine nature the question becomes more poignant because it is a question that can only be asked of that divine being who dwells within each of us individually. Maybe the contrast is too great to acknowledge.

In the judgment that is spoken of in the New Testament and by Christians the world over no one will be looking at us and with pointing finger telling us where we sinned and where we did well. We, as gods, will look at ourselves in the full light of day and contemplate how we were so easily led away by the pettiness of our three-dimensional reality, from the divine nature of our true selves. That is the only day of reckoning there will ever be and it will not cause us to be cast in or out of anywhere. We will move on unaffected by the experience and no better or worse than we ever were and without suffering any consequences devised by the pettiness of our egoic selves.

In the grand scheme of things, existence will continue without ramifications and our sojourn here on earth will just be one of an infinite number of them we will experience in one form or another. When you find the god that you are you will rise above the need to judge others and yourself and you will find that any idea of sin vanishes. Life is about experiences regardless of how our reality judges them. There is never a need to second guess anything you do, have done or will do. Find that inner you that knows all and life will open up in ways you never conceived of before. In that knowing the idea of sin, judgment and confession will no longer take form in your experience. You will simply live!

February 28, 2010

Thoughts Shared With a Young Explorer (Part 3)

This is the last post of my conversation with a young explorer searching for his own enlightenment. My answers to his questions are inline with his questions. He is a very intelligent individual. I think you will find his questions and hopefully my answers very interesting. My answers are in blue:

The first point I would like to bring up, if I understand your statements correctly, you said, on your website, that each individual was capable of doing anything conceivable just as any god that they personally could imagine. Correct. Also I gather that you believe that each person is technically free from any and all burdens and limits, and can with proper exercise of their “spiritual” side release these capabilities. If by technically you mean “mind” created limits then no you are not free. It is the discovery of the “I Am” that is not a part of a mind created illusion that will allow the engagement of godlike power. Gods are completely free of any burden and limits as you describe them. Going on these assumptions (and correct me if I’m wrong about those assumptions) how can such an idea be reconciled with the irrevocable position that humans find themselves in now, even those such as yourself who embrace the possibility of higher capabilities? The “irrevocable position” you describe is a “mind” created position from a collective of minds (egos works too). I know unequivocally that the mind cannot get to the possibility of “higher capability” you mention. It can attract more of “this reality” to its self and most of what we see going on in this world is just that, e.g., mind attracting more and bigger versions of the same.

You seem to imply that one can be the master of their own reality down to the last detail. If “one” is ego then absolutely not. If “one” is god then yes. Yet to imply this however seems faulty considering the fact that a human by taking thought cannot “change one hair of the head” or add an inch to their stature. Correct but what is thought? It is the mind identified with forms it chooses as important and necessary to “it’s” own identity. Mind is limited and stuck in a world it believes must be answerable to 3-D reality. It is a finite world the mind lives in. In short I mean to say that seeing that one cannot change many things about their own reality or that they are subject to such conditions in the first place implies that each being is subject to higher powers, and therefore cannot be god of their own reality beyond their control over their own will. Very nice “mind” created thought. You might as well have said “my mind can only grasp (because it has been conditioned to do so) that there must be a god out there somewhere the likes of which I can never become. That is the illusion I accept.” Certainly the mind that lies at the heart of our beings can somewhat detach itself from physical realities and ponder on things “supernatural” but this does not imply that there is complete control over the condition a being finds itself in or that it finds part of the matter it can control in (the body itself.) Your “mind” speaking again. It will tell you it can detach and ponder the “higher” things of eternity but it cannot. It is inextricably attached to the physical and knows not god. It only knows the identity it has created and will tell you anything to keep you believing that.

Even by your own actions you presume that my analysis of the matter is incorrect or faulty in that it goes against some system or pattern that must be followed…that my thoughts are following inbred tendencies and biases and that I must avoid them because of a suspicion or fear of contamination, by doing so you inadvertently have subjected yourself to what you deem to be a higher law. It may seem to you that it matters or that I care but I don’t. You’ll come to it on your own or you won’t. It doesn’t matter at all. I share with you the limitations created by the mind to keep us stuck. Judgment is the biggest. Humility is second. Don’t see a lot of either in our mind constructed world today. Your pursuits of things mystical have been, no doubt governed by certain practices which you have habitually repeated, and you therefore are a servant and not the master as a god would seem to be. I’m not sure how you could conclude such a thing but yes at one time I was the servant of my own mind created illusion. That is becoming (more and more) no longer the case. I never pursued mystical things. I did, however, always have an awareness of my spiritual, mystical (if want to call it that) nature. I tended to be afraid of it as the mind reality I was in (greatly influenced by the church) said it was evil. That is no longer my reality or illusion. I am Mystical as are you.

Science is hardly different in that it also trusts in certain natural processes and follows them through to obtain results from evidences that can be measured physically. In both cases you have people subjecting themselves to the order of things outside their own will and desire in order to bring about some realization or result. Even if one claims that seeking out this inner god requires listening to a higher instinct this still implies that there is a higher order of things being obeyed thus making null and void the idea of godlike power over ones reality. What more can I say? Your ego is stringing some good thoughts that make perfect sense to its level of reasoning. I engage my own mind to read your questions and understand what you are saying but spiritually speaking there is no “higher instinct.” Instinct is a thought form that has its creation in the mind. I’m not there. Instead of seeking out “this inner god” try only seeking out a “quiet mind.” Forget god for now. You seem to be on a quest to “not” discover him or her. Try only quieting your mind. He or she will show up sooner or later.

That was the first point.

Second, you appeal to scripture, and even your own patriarchal blessing (the thing you were told when you were 14 which you spoke of in your bio on amazon.com) to confirm your conclusions yet deny the remainder of said sources almost entirely. Hmmmmmm….I think you’re making an incorrect assumption. I don’t deny anything. I don’t care where “knowing” comes from. I accept pretty much all of it’s possible sources and believe me those sources are infinite. My patriarch was a great man and imparted truth to me that sang to my soul. He spoke to god, as god. 3 dimensionally speaking I rule out nothing anymore just because I was conditioned in a certain way. You sited Jesus as telling the people that they were “gods” and indeed He did say so, but did He not also command love, obedience, and sacrifice? Correct. This is not consistent with your assertion that Jesus and prophets taught and followed some different belief system similar to what you have discovered. I hear your conditioned ego at work again. “Belief system” as you call it is a very egoic (mind created) thought form. It calls forth duality which I have discussed earlier and in so doing it creates judgment. The mind always falls back to what it was conditioned to accept as reality. I don’t propose they had a belief system. That would be egoic and mind created. Instead they recognized they were gods and their awareness went from “mind created” to “god created.” They did not need or espouse “belief system.” In fact they are more likely to have taught us to “unbelieve.”

Third, simply denying the present physical existence as an illusion is to deny oneself insights into the realms of eternity that this physical reality must function in harmony with. Remember that the insights you speak of are mind created insights. There is noting wrong (or right) with such thoughts and insights but that is all they are. Never forget that. Even our science tells us that what makes it into consciousness is a small fraction of what is really going on. As spiritual beings it is even more that we could see and be aware of if we could see “as gods” and not as “minds.” Just as a simulation or game may temporarily and in minor ways rearrange the order of our perception of overall reality that doesn’t mean that such fabrications are complete illusions that have no connection to what we see before us. Games or fabrications? Now who or what devised them? Illusions inside illusions….you’re becoming very sophisticated in your description of “illusion.” At fundamental levels they all rely upon basic realities, yet to claim ownership of all-powerful knowledge yet still be subjected to an alleged illusion further illustrates that regardless of godlike potential one is still subject to powers greater than his/her own to which they are held captive. When you discover the god that you are you will not be subject to any law, including what we call physical laws (gravity, etc.). God’s know no law and are therefore not held captive by them. Only the mind puts barriers around the infinite. Think of it this way. any absolute you establish as “your reality” is a finite reality. I don’t dwell in that world any more but I do accept that I am in it and I try to “get along” so as to not upset to many along the way who see things as you do. Jesus called that “rendering unto Caesars what is Caesars” Don Juan called it “controlling your folly,” and there are other expressions such as “chop wood and carry water.”

To follow a route of believing that we are sucked into some illusion is to surmise that we are subjected to any number of layers of fabricated realities and discredits ones own existence and will entirely, thereby plunging everything and everyone out of existence, agency and consequence. I’ve never said you are sucked into an illusion. What i say is that we are taught “what” to see and what is important by the “mind created” world of humans. Surely I do not discredit my own existence. I exalt it but accept it as nothing more than a vacation from “other things” I and all of us were doing before incarnating on Earth. This life should be fun no matter how you “judge” the particular experience you are having at any given time.

This concept is not new, and was thoroughly explored by others as indicated by this reference. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/2 As I mentioned before. To the mind created reality there is “opposition in all things.” To the spiritual (gods) there is not. Everything is equal.

So it can be ascertained by simple observation that there are governing laws which humans have sought to understand so that we might be in harmony with them to our advantage. Governing is an egoic term. Gods don’t govern. To govern or be governed is not to be free. Humans govern but only because they have lost the “knowing” that they are gods first who are supposed to be enjoying a human experience. Also, seeing that life and existence allow the presence of goodness, joy, happiness, serenity, peace or any good thing simply shows that the overruling power of all things is “good” or freedom and agency promoting, for self-serving “evil” would not allow joy or anything contrary to its own nature or which didn’t consolidate all power life and existence to itself, and only that which is truly good and inspires freedom would allow the agency we enjoy whether to seek out greater freedom and capabilities or captivity and death. I once believed this but that was when I had a concept of “good and evil” and believed there was an “overruling power.” I no longer have a concept of “good or evil” and you know who god is.

So I ask, which is greater and more likely true to our eternal nature, the assumption that we are victims of meaningless illusion thereby robbing us of agency and free will and any form of godliness (agency), or the realization that those powers which truly enable and free and magnify the existence of any being are those which embrace and harmonize with all levels of existence? Only those caught up in the illusion are victims of it and by the way most are. You have the ability to change your life in an instant. all power for you to do that right now is at your hand. You need only do it. Your mind and the illusion it creates is what robs you of any agency you think you have or are supposed to have. Change it now. You can do that. Life and our existence itself show a pattern (even in the fact that we must be able to look beyond and comprehend things outside the physical realm) that laws do exist and only by obedience to those laws can we hope to attain to any level of additional choice, knowledge or freedom even as your assertion about the nature of reality admits. Ahhhh…Grasshopper. Spoken like a true Mormon. Obedience does not open you up to additional choice, knowledge or freedom. Awareness of the reality of a conditioned mind that believes “obedience” to mind constructed laws is what will free you. You are free already and you already know everything. Your mind prevents you from accessing what you are and what you know and all the subjection and obedience you give yourself over to will not get you any closer to finding your true self.

These are the areas where I see a key fault. Your conjectures about the nature of reality contradict themselves, for on the one hand they embrace a nature and a law and individual choice, but on the other hand claim that the realm we readily experience has no part of such nature and law and individual choice, or that we are subjected to the same until we assert our own power over it by obeying some law which should give us power although we supposedly already retain it for ourselves yet find ourselves subject to an outside force without any choice on our part. You are really hung up on “law.” I make no assertions that acceptance of “some law” that gives us power. If anything I am saying there are no laws at all that you or I are subject to at all. Gods are not bound by law. Any law and when you get that you overcome all boundaries that hold you back from being what you truly are. Remember what I said earlier. Know by “not knowing.” Let me add do by “not doing,’ see by “not seeing.” Here’s a great illusion: someone you consider to be an authority tells you to obey his or her way of believing things and you do. Who then is bound? Laws exist for those who need laws and those who need laws are the mind created collectives who want to control you in some way or another. It is confusing to try to explain the nature of such a belief or to ultimately come to the sure foundation since the pattern set by accepting such assumptions will inexorably lead one to question any other “reality” they claim to have found on the same basis as they questioned the first. I have no beliefs. All of it, everything is incredible or wondrous and to ascribe to a set of beliefs is to place my own imposed importance on something that is just to incredible to describe. I nor you really have enough time in this life to consider our importance, important.

However we should have hope despite our lack of being in complete control for our ability to comprehend and be aware of natural law sets forth a pattern which simply states that we are capable of acquiring understanding and ascending the scale of ability and choice and freedom for we are not inhibited to see and to choose to do so, and therefore we are invited to “climb.” Big problem in the illusion today. We are so convinced that we are lowly and sinful and unworthy blah, blah blah, that a big part of the current illusion has convinced us that we must “climb” as you call it and find that greater purpose that lies ahead somewhere. We are already gods! We stepped down to come here and our purpose for being here is not to step up. We already are up!! Always have been and always will be. We are “the purpose.” We came here to have fun and we are all wrapped up on finding out why we came here. Such a waste of time and energy when everything is before us to let go and just enjoy this incredible experience.

The empowerment of knowing we have choice and our own agency is the crux of any philosophy or religion or scientific pursuit. The fact of the “present” asserts the fact that we are by nature free beings over our own wills, and can use such to influence those things placed within our grasp, and the fact that we exist gives us liberating knowledge and purpose that witnesses that we are part of the fabric of the universe without beginning or end and that we have a far more fundamental involvement and place in it than is sometimes conceived. Sounds like god speaking. Great truth here. Do you know what you are saying here? Everything is in your grasp…everything. In fact, you already hold it in your hands.

February 21, 2010

Thoughts Shared With a Young Explorer (Part 2)

To continue the dialogue with my young friend from yesterday’s post (As I mentioned in the previous post our young explorer is LDS so some of his questions (and my answers) have a connotation oriented to that faith. The answers are general, however:

Young Explorer:

You seem to imply that one can be the master of their own reality down to the last detail. Yet to imply this however seems faulty considering the fact that a human by taking thought cannot “change one hair of the head” or add an inch to their stature. In short I mean to say that seeing that one cannot change many things about their own reality or that they are subject to such conditions in the first place implies that each being is subject to higher powers, and therefore cannot be god of their own reality beyond their control over their own will. Certainly the mind that lies at the heart of our beings can somewhat detach itself from physical realities and ponder on things “supernatural” but this does not imply that there is complete control over the condition a being finds itself in or that it finds part of the matter it can control in (the body itself.)

That was the first point.

Second, you appeal to scripture, and even your own patriarchal blessing (the thing you were told when you were 14 which you spoke of in your bio on amazon.com) to confirm your conclusions yet deny the remainder of said sources almost entirely. You sited Jesus as telling the people that they were “gods” and indeed He did say so, but did He not also command love, obedience, and sacrifice? This is not consistent with your assertion that Jesus and prophets taught and followed some different belief system similar to what you have discovered.

Third, simply denying the present physical existence as an illusion is to deny oneself insights into the realms of eternity that this physical reality must function in harmony with. Just as a simulation or game may temporarily and in minor ways rearrange the order of our perception of overall reality that doesn’t mean that such fabrications are complete illusions that have no connection to what we see before us. At fundamental levels they all rely upon basic realities, yet to claim ownership of all-powerful knowledge yet still be subjected to an alleged illusion further illustrates that regardless of godlike potential one is still subject to powers greater than his/her own to which they are held captive.

This concept is not new, and was thoroughly explored by others as indicated by this reference. http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/2 (this is a Mormon passage found in the Book of Mormon).

So it can be ascertained by simple observation that there are governing laws which humans have sought to understand so that we might be in harmony with them to our advantage. Also, seeing that life and existence allow the presence of goodness, joy, happiness, serenity, peace or any good thing simply shows that the overruling power of all things is “good” or freedom and agency promoting, for self-serving “evil” would not allow joy or anything contrary to its own nature or which didn’t consolidate all power life and existence to itself, and only that which is truly good and inspires freedom would allow the agency we enjoy whether to seek out greater freedom and capabilities or captivity and death.

The empowerment of knowing we have a choice and our own agency is the crux of any philosophy or religion or scientific pursuit. The fact of the “present” asserts the fact that we are by nature free beings over our own wills, and can use such to influence those things placed within our grasp, and the fact that we exist gives us liberating knowledge and purpose that witnesses that we are part of the fabric of the universe without beginning or end and that we have a far more fundamental involvement and place in it than is sometimes conceived.

My response:

“The illusion is great in you young grasshopper,” but, so too, is the force;-). You remind me of me. You search but your search is of 3-dimensional things which mine once was also. I see the natural duality of space-time reality at work in your life just as it was in the time of Jacob and other leaders of the Book of Mormon and with varying philosophers throughout time. The idea that there is “opposition in all things” is a 3-dimensional dilemma and it is at the heart of “judgment” which no one would argue Jesus told us “not” to do. Most think his admonition not to judge was because it would be taken care of by a God out there in yonder heavens and so was not necessary for us to get involved in but that would be wrong. Jesus told us not to judge because he like so many others knew that there is no duality when it comes to “spiritual” life. In other words, everything that happens is profoundly wonderful and no experience in life can be “judged” as anything but incredible regardless of how it is viewed or judged.

There is no good or evil except as you create it in your 3-dimensional mind and your mind is a totally physical thing. Your mind is not spiritual! No part of it is. Not the sub-conscious, not the conscious or any other part of it you may choose. When you speak of spiritual things you cannot include 3-dimensional conditions or conclusions because 3-dimensional reality does not comprehend (and never will) spiritual things. The great difficulty in life is the struggle between the mind and the spirit (god) that dwells within. The mind is constantly struggling to keep control so it is not lost to the aspect of each of us that it cannot comprehend. You cannot do the things Jesus said you can do because your mind has convinced you, you cannot. Your mind is the product of upbringing that has convinced you, you cannot do anything that cannot be explained in rational or 3-D terms.

As long as you remain trapped in the dogmatic ideas you constantly seek to prove or disprove in human terms you will remain forever in a quest that has no end in 3-D terms. The mind is completely good with this because as long as it can convince you that a rational answer to your divine nature exists you will never discover your divine nature and this is the mind’s ultimate objective. The mind does not exist outside of any conception other than the one it has created as “the self.” There is no self. That is the beauty of “waking up” from mind created reality or as I like to call it “illusion.” Nothing you identify with in this human existence or that you think is important is. When you find that space you no longer see the world as it is rather you see it for what it is not and what it is not is so much greater than anything you can imagine. Petty human words and language are remiss to describe it.

I can’t tell you what I know. You can’t learn it either. It already exists within you but you will never find it through the mind. The mind is the great tempter and teaser. It will let you think you are smarter than anyone and have intellectually figured everything out and nothing could be more untrue. It will even convince you that through it you can have “freedom” which it cannot even begin to comprehend. Freedom does not exist as a mind conceived thought form. The mind can only conjecture what freedom is based on its idea of reality. The only true freedom is freedom from what the mind thinks is real and important. Outside of that, we are not free. Freedom is not an abstract, mind created idea. It is the inherent nature of gods. It is your inherent nature but as soon as you try to define “it” using words and definitions you no longer are free.

What I am trying to convey to you is that I cannot provide you any answers that you don’t already possess at a deep inner level. The only way to access that knowing is to shut down your mind that refuses to shut up. Once you do that the god that you are will speak and it will be a voice of knowing. When my patriarch told me I would speak to people from many walks of life and that I would speak the truth it was not my mind that heard those words. It was god, the inner me, that knew and those were the only words I heard. They hit me to my core and they have never left me. God knows but God also does not interfere. God only works in an “unknowing” mind or better yet “no mind.” One of my affirmations is to “know” by “not knowing.”

I would love to provide conclusive proofs to you but I cannot nor is it important to me to do so. I know the course my journey has taken and I see you travelling a similar road. All I can do is suggest that you find ways to turn off the chatter of your mind. That is when god (you the god) will speak and show you wonders you have always known.

See below for some thoughts on your comments and questions below but know that you are in a different place than I am. I am not looking for 3-D conclusions and proofs. It just doesn’t matter. I no longer see what the world sees. Most people only see what they look at but my “seeing” is not with eyes. Something else perceives a greater reality. A reality of non-illusion as constructed by physical senses. You are limited by your mind. That is why you must get out of it. See below for more:

(You can see here that I have more to share. I will save that for the last post tomorrow. In my last post I answer the “parts” of the question asked (above) in line so you get a response to the actual idea or thought presented by our young explorer). More to follow

February 20, 2010

Thoughts Shared With a Young Explorer

I have been having an ongoing discussion with a young explorer this last week. I thought I would share his questions along with my thoughts on them. He reminds me of a time in my life when I was looking for three-dimensional answers to questions that exceed the boundaries of the finite illusion we live in. I think you might enjoy our deep and penetrating discussion (by the way our young searcher is a member of the LDS church but has been in his own search for spiritual insight and truth):

Searcher: So I read your bio on Amazon, (you can view the information he refers to here http://tinyurl.com/ycqeszt) and from what I can glean from what little I’ve seen on your blog, and the bio and the description of the book etc… is that you are speaking of spiritual sensitivity…

But before I get into that, may I say that I certainly have empathy for your past experiences involving mental illness. I was diagnosed with OCD six years ago after having a near mental breakdown (on my mission no less).

That said, I can emphasize that struggling against this chemical imbalance in my mind, and being raised by faithful believing parents, my mind was quick and arduous and thorough in exploring many avenues of thought and searching deep channels of spirituality.

I think you have tapped (and I would guess that you can relate) into something that was once far more common for mankind to search out. Today in our world of science and physical evidence people quickly discard or ignore searching the soul and our obvious connection with the eternal.

I surmise that this is what you have implied by saying that Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith were tapping into what you have inferred is a very similar vein, not to mention many other spiritual greats throughout the ages.

I also recognize the thrill that considering the divine and embracing our deep nature gives of which you have referred to…

It is really interesting to ponder all of it really, because men throughout the ages and even in the world today (especially in the less “scientifically advanced” nations) still dig deep into these spiritual realms, and often sink tap roots deep into their eternal roots looking for peace and strength.

I myself have felt the impression that I am an eternal being in a temporal existence. It is that feeling simply of knowing that one exists and has always existed.

These things to me, remind me of the heady excitement that one can have considering the possibilities of eternity, and (for latter-day saints) thinking, I’m a child of the God of the universe, and coming to an epiphany of realizing you are far more than your mortal mind recognizes or can remember.

It is similar to the thrill I get even contemplating the vast expanse of the physical universe that is observable and the myriad worlds and countless wonders that surely would defy our previous imaginations.

It strikes me that your description of coming to a realization of letting things in the past go and living in the now really seems to resemble embracing the attitude of faith and self forgiveness and hope…hope to move on and build up and to rise from the ashes of the past, good bad or indifferent.

My question to you is, do you deny the physical world as an “illusion” or simply treat it as another layer of reality?

My Response: You are very articulate and if you haven’t already considered it you may want to look into writing. I sense you are a “deep” individual which makes the connection, for me, to you, very easy. I enjoy reading your words very much.

I explain here to our young searcher how having come to my own awakening I wrote a book titled On Being God – Beyond Your Life’s Purpose and similarities I discovered to other modern and ancient spiritual icons…

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book is the “knowing” (as I call it) that came to me that is so consistent with so much of almost all “mystical” philosophies the world over. All of them look at the inner divinity and timelessness of our existence. Even Joseph Smith (Mormon Prophet) spoke of man as “becoming gods.” In any case the stark awakening I underwent continues to be revealing to me in the sense that I had never read or researched any of these other belief systems and all of a sudden I am getting downloaded with essentially everything that has been understood by a few over thousands of years of human history.

I continue to be amazed at the similarities between what I wrote as brand new material and what has been known by great spiritual icons throughout time. The book also directly answers the question you asked to much greater detail than I will share here. I highly recommend it to you and would love your comments after reading it. In fact, I would consider it an honor. Here is the link to amazon where you can find it; http://tinyurl.com/ycqeszt. If you haven’t already you can check out my website as well; http://www.spiritual-intuition.com . Something I have on the site you might enjoy and I would love to have you participate in is the ability for those who come to the site to respond to the various pages and information by adding their own thoughts on the subjects they are interested in. If the comments you share are appropriate for the site I will actually create a page on the site that is credited to you and which others can comment. You should take a look and like I said I would love to here some of your thoughts on the site.

Now for the answer to your question:

“My question to you is, do you deny the physical world as an “illusion” or simply treat it as another layer of reality?”

One of the main themes in my book is that “we live in an illusion.” The illusion is the result of conditioning we undergo from the very beginning of our lives. We are literally taught what to be aware of by family, schools, churches, realities, etc., and in so doing we lose what we came to earth with, which is the awareness of gods. We are infinite beings (infinite in some form or another) and this earth life is a very finite reality. What has happened is that in our finite “human-ness” we try to put boundaries around our infinite selves. We have to stop doing that in order to begin to see how incredible we are in an “infinite sense.” Very, very hard to do because of the conditioning we undergo from birth.

In essence we if we could see the world through unconditioned eyes (eyes that say this is what you should see) it would blow your mind and in such a moment you would comprehend the world in ways indescribable using our limited languages. I can’t describe to you what it is but I can assure you, you can have this kind of awakening in your life. You’ll know it when you see it.

Thanks, again. Have a great day!

I will share more tomorrow.