wondrous Archives – Page 5 of 6

October 12, 2014

The Nature of Spirituality

While working with my Sister in a village in Honduras where she had bought property and had set up a small clinic for the people of that village and surrounding areas I was able to see firsthand that spirituality is not a condition of what we possess or an arbitrary hierarchy of needs as so many of us believe. There was every form of disease and malnutrition and every single person who came to her clinic would receive a dose of a de-worming medicine just for showing up. Parasites infested everyone because there was no infrastructure anywhere in Honduras that could provide basic needs. Dirt floors and stick huts packed with mud were common and trips to the river were where the villagers drank, washed clothing, dishes and bathed themselves.

One day we, my sister and I, were talking about the children who always seemed to be hanging around. I observed that they all seemed so happy and asked my sister if she thought these little ones stood a chance of ever having a spiritual awareness. She exclaimed immediately that it was not possible in the least as they were struggling with so many other issues that to discover their own divine nature would be impossible. I was surprised by her response and asked, “How do you explain that they all seem so happy?” Her response was just as immediate and similarly direct. “I don’t know,” she said, “it puzzles me too because they have nothing and they have nothing to look forward to!”

I was not satisfied with this answer and pressed her a bit further on the subject of spirituality. She insisted that “basic needs” had to be served before anyone could advance to a more “enlightened” state and that outside the work she was doing to help the little ones in her village few if any had any chance of having anything other than a life of poverty and disease. I remember being saddened by her assessment of those children and pondered the sweetness in their faces and their complete exhilaration with the life they were living. Not once did I ever hear a child complain of their circumstances and everywhere I saw gratitude and acceptance, happiness and joy. In fact, when I was getting ready to leave three of the young children wrote me letters thanking me for coming to visit them and expressing how much they loved having me there with them. What moved me most, however, were their wishes for me. Each of these wonderful children wished for me to have “everything I desired” in life and to be happy. Without having any concept of how “good” I had things in my life, how abundant and full of the things that are supposed to help us become “actualized,” these children were completely giving of themselves. What they gave was more than all the riches in the world. They gave their love, their friendship and from the very depths of their souls they spoke to mine.

Their “giving” to me was from the depths of someone deeply spiritual but without, even, the label of “spirituality.” They were divine and it didn’t matter if they knew what that meant or not. Life for them was a treat as was my life when I was with them. I wept when I read the words of giving and concern for my happiness.

Spiritually speaking these were the great ones. Amidst, the squalor, disease and rampant poverty, as we in the west would define it, I witnessed majesty as I have never seen it. I stood among giants and I trembled before them. I could no longer feel any sorrow for these children as my sorrow for them turned to sorrow for myself. I had become the judge of their existence and what I had seen for them was destroyed by what they already knew about existence. In desolation, they knew more than I ever hoped to. They were humble; I was embarrassed. I was completely undressed by the “gods” of this tiny little village and I have never been the same since. My prayer since that visit has been that the children of this village never discover the labels we put on them and that their simple view of life never gives way to the noise of our, so called, “actualized” descriptions.

Surely spiritual awareness, which I had sought for so many years, is not a property of attainment, acclaim, and fulfilment of so-called basic needs. Spiritual awareness is our very first aspect; it is the very core of our nature. How true the New Age statement that “we are spiritual beings having a human experience”. There is nothing we must attain in order to achieve spiritual awakening. In fact, it might be considered an arrogant assumption that we must somehow become something we are not, nor may ever be, in order to achieve higher states of awareness. One might ask, “What chance do the poor and infirm have of ever reaching higher states of awareness if they must rise above basic needs when such a possibility may never present itself in their lifetimes?” We all sense a kind of hypocrisy at such a question because we know that some of our greatest spiritual icons came from such circumstances. Some even went from incredible wealth and royalty to a life of poverty and begging as a way to find the awareness I was convinced must come some other way.

We are spiritual beings. Our first state of existence is a spiritual one and it is the human-ness of our earthly existence that conditions us to think that the human is not the second state but the first. The focal point of our existence, the peak of the pyramid, if you will, is our most basic knowing, and poverty and lack are equally able as is wealth and riches, or education and intellect, to drive us from or to that knowing.

Adapted from the book: On Human Being-Loving & Living Without Purpose

January 20, 2013

How We Create Our Own Reality?

I was recently asked this question and wanted to share my answer which I believe is relevant to any spiritual search. Let me know what you think.

We do create our own experience. When the newborn child you mentioned enters this Earth 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, which 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 to 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 judgment 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 with 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 synch with the spiritual experience there will always be conflict. The two typically see things in very different ways 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!

January 8, 2012

Breaking Down the Barriers to Spirit – A Way to Live for 2012

Instead of asking you to reflect on the year just ended and create resolutions for the new year just beginning I would like to share a pattern for life that will put you on a path of breaking down the barriers we all have when trying to access our spiritual natures. These are not resolutions rather they are a guide for living everyday, regardless of year, that never requires renewal or reflection. They are a guide for living in such a way that we are always open to our own divinity.

Accessing our spiritual or divine nature is difficult in light of the control ego has on us. Ego is opposed to anything beneficial to others and to ourselves. A Course in Miracles says, “The ego wishes no one well. Yet, its survival depends on your belief that you are exempt from its evil intentions.”

How do we penetrate egoic devices that keep us from accessing the good within? Here is a list of characteristics that will not only penetrate our ego natures but help form a barrier that will prevent ego from having any influence in our lives, whatsoever.

Never point the finger; never and at no one: Pointing the finger steers us outward away from who we are. It is an easy thing to do to look away from ourselves while focusing on others. In fact, all of us need to always be singularly focused on our inner selves, where no inclination, whatsoever, exists to point away toward someone or something else. Pointing in any direction, even towards ourselves, is a good way to distance ourselves from that being who dwells within.
Ceasing to judge anything: Our judgment blinds us to reality. It skews our perceptions to finite criteria which limits infinite possibility. Gods have no limitations of any kind. They are bound to nothing, even so called physical laws. Judgment is the glue that holds us to the idea of impossibility. We like saying “nothing is impossible”, but our judgments convince us otherwise. When we cease to judge anything, the doorway to everything opens up to us.
Give up holding onto the past: Our history is the “school” of our judgments. We learn well our definitions of life in the school of past experience. Those definitions not only become the criteria for judging others, but also for judging ourselves. Judgments are confining to our senses and to our essence as gods. When we give up holding onto the past, newness and freshness strikes us in ways we cannot imagine.
Speaking kindly: Humans are said to be hardwired for communication. The ego, which is uniquely human, is programmed to defend itself. No ego ever wants to be perceived as “less than” its preconditioned criteria. While other egos may not reciprocate, always speak kindly of others. We can never know where anyone is coming from. No one knows your history nor do you know theirs. Speaking kindly allows everyone some ease and safety. It is an opening of your heart and theirs.
Expressions of love soften the ego, speak them often: The only thing “hard” about humans is the ego. It is the shell we all have that supposedly protects us from the onslaught of other egos crucial judgments. Ego is a defensive mechanism built up over time. It is the past brought forward into the present. It is the preparer of future defensive engagements. It is strong against the devices of other egos. It is defenseless against love and kindness. Speaking kindly and expressions of love break down egoic defenses and opens the door to the soul where our defensive walls give way to our divine nature. Expressions of love are gods speaking to others and to us. Nothing can stand against such expressions, especially our own egos.
Love everything: This is difficult because we are never programmed to do so. We are programmed to judge and place our affections on those things we have been taught to see as good. Finding a way to see beauty in everything is a way to open our minds to what our hearts already know. There is beauty and wonder in everything. It is all worthy of our love. Everyone, everything!

Practice these things everyday if you can. You will feel your heart soften toward everything going on in your experience. You will also notice doors opening to you that were once closed and you will be filled more and more with the wide-eyed wonder you had as a child. Each day, less and less will escape your view.

Enjoy your new awareness, enjoy the new year but most of all enjoy yourself right now this very moment. You are god. All my best,

Carl.

August 14, 2011January 1, 2021

A View on Compassion

Recently I was asked a question by someone visiting my website. Here is the question and what follows is my response. While the response is a bit lengthy I believe there is some important information for those who ask the same questions. I’d love to hear your response.

Comments: I just continue to have a problem with people who take other’s lives and rape etc. I find that difficult to be ok with and that it is the god within at work you have to be kidding me. How can we offer love to human life forms who are capable of this???? We must still believe that there are many who are not Intuitive enough to realize who they are or from where they came… so walk a destructive physical life. How can we be ok with this and offer love to these people??? Please explain to me…

My Response:

Vicki,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You ask, perhaps, the most complex questions that can be asked for any human living in this existence. There is no easy answer mainly because our egos get so attached to what they have determined to be right or wrong in the world. You must think of yourself (we all must) as two individuals. One that is human and one that is divine (God). The human is everything physical that you experience including your thoughts, dreams, aspirations, etc. The divine is the observer of the experience the human is having. The divine does not interfere with the human experience because, after all, the divine came here specifically to have the human (that YOU are) experience. It did not come here to change anything. I know this sounds a bit bizarre, but the essence of our human existence is to experience the wondrous-ness of being humans and to interfere (as gods could) would be to alter the reality of that experience.

After having established this, I will try to answer your questions. Let me be perfectly clear that “the god within” as you mentioned could be okay with rape, murder and all the other forms of violence we experience in the world. Gods, as I mention in my Book “On Being God-Beyond Your Life’s Purpose” do not encroach upon the experience of other gods. They have no need or inclination to do so simply because they possess all the power to create whatever they want. Having said that, however, as for this human experience the “divine” in us has also agreed not to interfere in the “human” condition as part of the overall “human” experience. It is the “human” condition that commits the acts of violence and control on other humans. It is the human condition that tries to stop it and it is the human condition that decides if it is “ok” or “not ok” to “offer love” to those who commit such acts. Nothing that is going on in the physical sense is “because” of gods. It is all because of humans.

As a human, you can decide whether to “offer love” to those who perpetrate such things on other humans or not. As gods the question of “love” doesn’t even come into question. What comes into question for the divine in you is compassion. Now, the world has misunderstood
the meaning of compassion. The world (egos) thinks of compassion as a higher form of love which it is not. Compassion has nothing to do with love. The only words we have in our human language (English) to adequately describe compassion is “acceptance of everything” (careful not to confuse acceptance with apathy). Gods “accept” what is because they know that in the grand spectrum none of what goes on here “as humans” has any significance in the “eternal” spectrum.

What has happened in this “human” experience is that the “ego”, both individual and collective, has attempted to “out do” what is divine in us and in so doing has gotten out of control, to say the least! In other words, those who commit such horrible things no longer know
what they are doing. They are, for the most part, cut off from the divine nature within and have been largely taken over by the egoic nature that always looks outward for satisfaction and satisfaction often takes on vengeful and inconsiderate forms. Vicki, “they know not what they do.”

Here is why I say that we try in every way to love such individuals. To be angry, vengeful and unforgiving of those who have lost their way is to put yourself in the same kind of mind-set as they are. In other words, the ego in you is saying “why should ‘I’ be this or that” when they have done “this or that,” which “I,” for whatever reason, believe is wrong. Do you see this? You cannot fight against that which you despise or don’t accept (these are egoic responses) and not have it running wild in your experience. Love is a verb. It is one of the only things that can “actively” alter the egoic nature of the human experience, be it, individually or collectively simply because “love” alters YOU – not them. If you are holding on to your feelings of disapproval, anger and indignation, you are being as “disconnected” from the divine in you as any of those you judge to have hurt you or others. Your path is as “destructive” as theirs; not to say that you harm or hurt others but destructive to your own spiritual well-being. Why would you do that to yourself, Vicki?

In the end, Vicki, you choose (as a human) how you can view this experience. However, in the infinite scheme of things, none of what happens here matters. You will proceed into eternity as the God that you are and you will not judge anything that happened here or anywhere else, because everything to our innately divine nature is wonderful. As gods we don’t “see” with eyes that judge. We only see that everything is “good.” That is the “compassionate” nature the god who dwells within you. Find the divine in you and you will experience this knowing. Question every one of your judgments for they are of the ego. This is how you can tell whether or not you are connected to the divine within you.

Long answer to your question, Vicki. I hope you will contemplate what I have said. As I state on my website, “my purpose is to help get you out of your mind”. When you discover that YOU are not your body, your mind or your ego you will be at the point of discovering “WHO” you really are. It will amaze you how that will change your life. I wish you all the best in your spiritual endeavors.

Blessings,

Carl

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.