"Self-realization is identifying with the essence of the self, which is presence." A. H. Almaas
"The soul is an organism whose essential identity is presence." A. H. Almaas
Self-realization is soul- realization; realizing that one is the soul.
The soul is Presence of Being. Living, intelligent, discriminating awareness is Presence of
Being. The soul is a benevolent entity of living, intelligent, discriminating awareness. The soul, this entity, this living intelligence, has the capacity to perceive and to know. It also has a chameleon-like capacity to manifest as the exact quality of Being that is appropriate to the situation at hand.
This benevolent entity of living intelligence, the soul, perceives, knows, manifests the appropriate Essential Quality or Aspect of Being, and, in addition, it has the capacity to act. The primary action of the soul is its Presence as the Essential Quality of Being. This Presence of Essential Aspects and Qualities of Being will also inform and influence the mind and physical body, initiating action as is needed.
It is seen, then, that one's soul, one's own Presence, has the capacity to perceive, to know, to manifest as the appropriate Essential Quality or Aspect of Presence, and to put that benevolent Presence into action.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
A Message from Home
This thinking mind and animal intelligence desperately want a nest, a den, a place, that is home. Personal security. Belonging. Safety. Validation of this body form as significant, meaningful and grounded here, in consciousness, in the world. Home gives place, autonomy, belonging and identity. Home is where I most manifest who I am, what I am, what I value, what I represent. Home is a place of family and tribe. A context and point of reference for living on earth.
My home is MY HOME. Mine. An extension of me. A place on the earth imbued with the significance, the values, and the meaning of the individual personality. The "me" that wants a home is the animal form and the ego personality.
The animal can find a home. The personality cannot, because the personality is a mental structure. Its only abode is the delusional mind that spawned it. The animal simply wants to be fed, sheltered from the elements, warm and reasonably secure in its "home". The personality wants an impossible validation, aggrandizement, and embodied substance from its home. It wants permanence. It wants desperately to rest without vanishing. All unattainable. The illusory self, created by the delusional mind, is fated to endless frustration in its search for such a home.
In truth, home is not a place. Home is not physical. It does not appear in the field of consciousness, nor does it exist in the world. Home is the self-known contentment of Presence of Being. It is living intelligence, affectionate for all that appears in its light. For a human being, home is basic trust in the benevolence, holding and love of the universe. When identified as self-known, intelligent, living Presence of Being, there is nothing and nowhere except home. All is home. All dimensions, all manifestation, all states, and all forms. The realm before consciousness, , the realm of consciousness and the realm beyond consciousness are all and at once Home.
Greed, war and religion all originate as the sincere intent to create a home on earth. A place where we can experience our authentic value, security, significance and belonging. A place to simply rest and be sheltered. A place to relax, feel held and to trust that the universe is giving all that is my due. This is the true goal of the endless struggles we as humans engage in . A goal never to be reached by selfishness, by greed, by anger, by violence or aggressive force.
Gentle kindness guides us home. Gentle kindness is how we act and how we think when we abide in our invisible Home beyond form. Gentle kindness animates and expresses the truth of our knowledge of self. As vehicles of gentle kindness we are divine messengers of truth, breathing Grace into the world.
My home is MY HOME. Mine. An extension of me. A place on the earth imbued with the significance, the values, and the meaning of the individual personality. The "me" that wants a home is the animal form and the ego personality.
The animal can find a home. The personality cannot, because the personality is a mental structure. Its only abode is the delusional mind that spawned it. The animal simply wants to be fed, sheltered from the elements, warm and reasonably secure in its "home". The personality wants an impossible validation, aggrandizement, and embodied substance from its home. It wants permanence. It wants desperately to rest without vanishing. All unattainable. The illusory self, created by the delusional mind, is fated to endless frustration in its search for such a home.
In truth, home is not a place. Home is not physical. It does not appear in the field of consciousness, nor does it exist in the world. Home is the self-known contentment of Presence of Being. It is living intelligence, affectionate for all that appears in its light. For a human being, home is basic trust in the benevolence, holding and love of the universe. When identified as self-known, intelligent, living Presence of Being, there is nothing and nowhere except home. All is home. All dimensions, all manifestation, all states, and all forms. The realm before consciousness, , the realm of consciousness and the realm beyond consciousness are all and at once Home.
Greed, war and religion all originate as the sincere intent to create a home on earth. A place where we can experience our authentic value, security, significance and belonging. A place to simply rest and be sheltered. A place to relax, feel held and to trust that the universe is giving all that is my due. This is the true goal of the endless struggles we as humans engage in . A goal never to be reached by selfishness, by greed, by anger, by violence or aggressive force.
Gentle kindness guides us home. Gentle kindness is how we act and how we think when we abide in our invisible Home beyond form. Gentle kindness animates and expresses the truth of our knowledge of self. As vehicles of gentle kindness we are divine messengers of truth, breathing Grace into the world.
Friday, April 2, 2010
A Point of Reference
I have discovered away of knowing myself as a dimensionless point of intelligent, living Presence that consumes consciousness. Like a vacuum or a black hole I ravenously devour and annihilate existence.
I am a Presence that feeds on the perception of Being. Knowledge and relationship nourish me.
I am unimaginably real and alive. All form rushes towards me, and in a blissful embrace, it vanishes. I alone endure.
I am dense, like a diamond, and massive, like a mountain of gold, yet I am smaller than a pinpoint. I occupy no space.
I have affection for all I behold in manifestation, and at the same time, in the mystery of my depths, I am utterly dispassionate.
I am the mother of all beings and of all the worlds. With the tenderest love I drink them in and welcome them home to me.
I have discovered away of knowing myself as a dimensionless point of intelligent, living Presence that consumes consciousness. Like a vacuum or a black hole I ravenously devour and annihilate existence.
I am a Presence that feeds on the perception of Being. Knowledge and relationship nourish me.
I am unimaginably real and alive. All form rushes towards me, and in a blissful embrace, it vanishes. I alone endure.
I am dense, like a diamond, and massive, like a mountain of gold, yet I am smaller than a pinpoint. I occupy no space.
I have affection for all I behold in manifestation, and at the same time, in the mystery of my depths, I am utterly dispassionate.
I am the mother of all beings and of all the worlds. With the tenderest love I drink them in and welcome them home to me.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Presence as the Mother of Beingness
Pure Awareness is non-local awareness. Consciousness, which is local awareness, is the foreground of Pure Awareness in humans. The body, the mind, the world and consciousness all co-emerge in Pure Awareness. Illumination by the light of Awareness imparts the quality of Beingness to all appearances. Living, intelligent Awareness is Presence. When form manifests in Awareness it creates a field of consciousness. All of the myriad objects that appear, making up consciousness, are valuable, significant and meaningful only in that they shine in the radiance of Pure Awareness. This alone is their substance and reality. In no other way can they be said to exist.
Each of us, as sentient beings, are localizations of Awareness, and, as such , are beacons which radiate reality. In the light of our Presence, animating every object blessed in its glow, Beingness blossoms forth.
For Awareness to be local it must have an instrument of sensory perception and a vehicle to house that instrument. That's the human body with it's organs of sense perception. The vehicle appears as one of its own perceptions in the field of consciousness. That is the human in the world. In a universe where everything is in flux, the body must be endowed with self-regulating, and self-preserving capacities; the animal instinct. If it is to relate to, and interact with many others, also driven by self-preserving animal instincts, then the vehicle of localized awareness must have advanced relationship skills to enhance survival in complex social structures. That is the ego personality.
What we wind up with is a vehicle of awareness that has multiple levels of capacity in self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-preservation. Yet, as complex, intelligent and talented as it is, the body is simply a vehicle. It is a sensor, as it were, placing boundless, eternal, infinite,pure awareness in a local, time-bound and finite realm. This realm is populated by billions of awareness-vehicle life forms which must, of necessity, prey upon each other for their own survival. As a result conflict is built in to the experience of this dimension.
Yet, the light of Pure Awareness, in which all of the seething, conflicted masses appear, is itself, utterly without conflict. Pure Awareness is not compelled to struggle or suffer in the spectacle it reifies and animates. It watches.
The living intelligence which understands these words is not human. It is not a quality of consciousness, nor is it a phenomena of the world. It is Pure Awareness, reaching out through its vehicles, caressing itself as the temporary form loving its own infinite depth. It is this one intelligence, this one Presence, the inner and only Self. It is you.
Each of us, as sentient beings, are localizations of Awareness, and, as such , are beacons which radiate reality. In the light of our Presence, animating every object blessed in its glow, Beingness blossoms forth.
For Awareness to be local it must have an instrument of sensory perception and a vehicle to house that instrument. That's the human body with it's organs of sense perception. The vehicle appears as one of its own perceptions in the field of consciousness. That is the human in the world. In a universe where everything is in flux, the body must be endowed with self-regulating, and self-preserving capacities; the animal instinct. If it is to relate to, and interact with many others, also driven by self-preserving animal instincts, then the vehicle of localized awareness must have advanced relationship skills to enhance survival in complex social structures. That is the ego personality.
What we wind up with is a vehicle of awareness that has multiple levels of capacity in self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-preservation. Yet, as complex, intelligent and talented as it is, the body is simply a vehicle. It is a sensor, as it were, placing boundless, eternal, infinite,pure awareness in a local, time-bound and finite realm. This realm is populated by billions of awareness-vehicle life forms which must, of necessity, prey upon each other for their own survival. As a result conflict is built in to the experience of this dimension.
Yet, the light of Pure Awareness, in which all of the seething, conflicted masses appear, is itself, utterly without conflict. Pure Awareness is not compelled to struggle or suffer in the spectacle it reifies and animates. It watches.
The living intelligence which understands these words is not human. It is not a quality of consciousness, nor is it a phenomena of the world. It is Pure Awareness, reaching out through its vehicles, caressing itself as the temporary form loving its own infinite depth. It is this one intelligence, this one Presence, the inner and only Self. It is you.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Presence of Being Trancends Memory
There are two fundamentally different types of knowledge. One is direct, non-memory based knowledge; what Hameed Ali calls basic knowledge. The other is ordinary regular knowledge, entirely memory based. Memories are the building blocks of ordinary knowledge and all memories are, themselves, ordinary knowledge.
Basic direct knowledge is a unique type of focused attention. Direct Knowledge is in the moment, held in the light of Pure Awareness, which is is the intelligent capacity to know, inherent in Presence of Being. Thus, direct knowledge is the direct experience of Presence as intelligent, knowing, Awareness. Very fundamental.
Ordinary, memory based knowledge is retained so that it can be retrieved in the mind later, giving us the ability to focus our attention outside the moment. It is, by definition, outside the moment, referenced to, and networked into, the constellation of mental structures and images we hold as memory of past experience. Ordinary knowledge is attention placed on images of past events, held in the light of consciousness. As such, ordinary knowledge gives you an indirect experience of your own life ,while you are engaged in living it! In the moment,yes, but only partially of the moment. Memory of past experience superimposed on the present moment mostly obscure it.
Memory is a survival tool for carrying information forward in the mind to inform and influence the present from the past. This is a body - mind consciousness process. It has a survival advantage, and as such, is necessary and useful. It does not, however, function to give a better immediate, objective, ontologically authentic experience of reality as Presence in the moment. Quite the contrary. Memory serves to obscure experience of Presence, precisely because the memory function requires that attention focus outside the moment, while Presence , of course, is only in the present moment.
Memory is a biological mind function , fully referenced in the field of consciousness and revolving around the biological body. Ordinary knowledge is memory based and inseparable from memory. In relationship to the present moment , ordinary memory based knowledge is always indirect. Much of the experience is inferred from memory and, no matter how detailed, vivid, or significant it may seem, its main content is a preponderance of images from the past overlaying the present. Focusing attention outside the present in order to benefit from knowledge of the past results in inhabiting a present so crowded with recalled elements of past experience that past and present feel very much the same. Presence is lost because Presence is never a memory. It is never ordinary knowledge. It is untainted as a reference to the past, except as a dead image or symbol, misused and always misunderstood by the ordinary mind .
When attention is habitually focused outside the present moment you lose touch with Presence, you lose touch with reality, you lose touch with your true identity, and you lose touch with your capacities, the essential qualities of Presence of Being. Everything truly significant and meaningful resides in the present moment, inseparable from and expressed as your own
Presence of Being. Your identity, your intelligence, your capacities, and your significance are all innate to your Presence.
To believe that you remember your Presence is always a delusion. You may remember ordinary knowledge images of how Presence felt to the body, or how the mind was influenced by Presence, but it is impossible to form a memory of the ontological thusness of Presence itself. Memory and Presence are different categories of experience. The first is illusory, though convincing, useful and protective of the body - mind. The later is real. It is not a subjective experience of reality. It is, rather, an objective experience of being the Presence, knowingness, oneness, and dynamism of reality. This experience is authentic, unmistakable, solid and complete without any need to reference images or the past. Presence of Being, with all of its Essential Qualities, is real. Everything else is illusory.
Basic direct knowledge is a unique type of focused attention. Direct Knowledge is in the moment, held in the light of Pure Awareness, which is is the intelligent capacity to know, inherent in Presence of Being. Thus, direct knowledge is the direct experience of Presence as intelligent, knowing, Awareness. Very fundamental.
Ordinary, memory based knowledge is retained so that it can be retrieved in the mind later, giving us the ability to focus our attention outside the moment. It is, by definition, outside the moment, referenced to, and networked into, the constellation of mental structures and images we hold as memory of past experience. Ordinary knowledge is attention placed on images of past events, held in the light of consciousness. As such, ordinary knowledge gives you an indirect experience of your own life ,while you are engaged in living it! In the moment,yes, but only partially of the moment. Memory of past experience superimposed on the present moment mostly obscure it.
Memory is a survival tool for carrying information forward in the mind to inform and influence the present from the past. This is a body - mind consciousness process. It has a survival advantage, and as such, is necessary and useful. It does not, however, function to give a better immediate, objective, ontologically authentic experience of reality as Presence in the moment. Quite the contrary. Memory serves to obscure experience of Presence, precisely because the memory function requires that attention focus outside the moment, while Presence , of course, is only in the present moment.
Memory is a biological mind function , fully referenced in the field of consciousness and revolving around the biological body. Ordinary knowledge is memory based and inseparable from memory. In relationship to the present moment , ordinary memory based knowledge is always indirect. Much of the experience is inferred from memory and, no matter how detailed, vivid, or significant it may seem, its main content is a preponderance of images from the past overlaying the present. Focusing attention outside the present in order to benefit from knowledge of the past results in inhabiting a present so crowded with recalled elements of past experience that past and present feel very much the same. Presence is lost because Presence is never a memory. It is never ordinary knowledge. It is untainted as a reference to the past, except as a dead image or symbol, misused and always misunderstood by the ordinary mind .
When attention is habitually focused outside the present moment you lose touch with Presence, you lose touch with reality, you lose touch with your true identity, and you lose touch with your capacities, the essential qualities of Presence of Being. Everything truly significant and meaningful resides in the present moment, inseparable from and expressed as your own
Presence of Being. Your identity, your intelligence, your capacities, and your significance are all innate to your Presence.
To believe that you remember your Presence is always a delusion. You may remember ordinary knowledge images of how Presence felt to the body, or how the mind was influenced by Presence, but it is impossible to form a memory of the ontological thusness of Presence itself. Memory and Presence are different categories of experience. The first is illusory, though convincing, useful and protective of the body - mind. The later is real. It is not a subjective experience of reality. It is, rather, an objective experience of being the Presence, knowingness, oneness, and dynamism of reality. This experience is authentic, unmistakable, solid and complete without any need to reference images or the past. Presence of Being, with all of its Essential Qualities, is real. Everything else is illusory.
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Root of Conflict in Relationship
The personality ego structure is vulnerable and fragile. It cannot withstand the narcissistic challenges inherent in routine daily interactions without having it's deficiencies and insecurities exposed repeatedly. This continual chipping away at the ego structure would soon be overwhelming except for the tactics used to divert and dissipate potentially damaging input.
We all, from infancy, have developed the unquestioned habit of looking outward, to others, to know who we are. They tell us, by their words and actions in relationship with us, what and who we are, our value, and our significance. Other people act as mirrors allowing us to see ourselves. As ego personalities we largely exist as a composite of these external images, mirrored to us by others, internalized and then adopted as identity. Consequently we experience our very beings as threatened when negative, insulting or painful images of us are presented by others.
Thus, using people as external mirrors to better see ourselves, we formed self images and in this way created our ego selves. Without constant vigilance, we run the risk that negative images from others might replace or destroy the positive images we hold of our goodness, value, meaning, and significance.
We are vulnerable because others create our ego selves, good and bad. We are fragile because these ego structures are merely images, without real substance. As ego personality 'selves' it is inevitable that we always feel threatened by others in this way.
The most commonly used and universal strategy for dealing with this insecurity of identity is to attack anyone perceived as threatening. Mirror negativity and deficiency to them, as their quality. Preserve one's own fragile self image by projecting inadequacy onto them. This, of course, will have some predictable effects. First, they will be insulted and wounded. Their ego, also a mere collection of images , will be weakened and the illusory nature of their self, nearly exposed. An immediate counter attack will usually ensue, either overtly or covertly. With both parties constantly maneuvering to protect and preserve feeble, image based, self identity structures, it is easy to set off conflict of this nature in any type of human interaction.
In fact, conflict is an absolutely indispensable component of daily intercourse among ego identified individuals . That is to say, it is an integral part of the coping strategy for everyone, in all of their relationships. The active experience of conflict directs judgmental, critical energies outward, away from your own threatened ego self. It elicits powerful emotions like anger, hatred, rage and contempt. Though distorted and destructive, they give substance and support to the ego. Energy flows. One knows what to do. Action is taken.
Thus, conflict actually serves to convert personality damaging, deficiency revealing , negative mirroring into an experience of self as substantial, and capable. Conflict tells you where you stand, who you are, and what you should do. It gives orientation and is very comforting. Even though the emotions of conflict are negative, they support us when we would , otherwise, experience devastating inadequacy.
Relationships that are structured around conflict elicit this defensive psychic armor; protecting, shielding and defending the fragile ego. If we are to exist as functional, adult personalities we must live, to some degree, in a continual state of conflict. That we all do is self evident.
From early on, we need others and they need us for ego creating, ego enhancing mirroring and support. We also need others and they need us for conflict, and a place to project our own deficiencies, so that we can deny and remain numb to the truth of our own ego vulnerabilty, inadequacy and anxiety. We need contentious others for the armoring, energy, substance, orientation and power evoked in defense of the ego. Ego personalities in relationship simply must have a steady diet of conflict to maintain the integrity of their experience of self.
The inevitability of conflict between ego personalities is best demonstrated in intimate relationship. The ego threat that we seek to defend ourselves against is rooted in our habit of knowing ourselves through others. The one person, historically, that we all most rely on to know ourselves, is our mothers. It is Mom, the unquestioned authority in our infancy and childhood, who informs us about our being, our value, and our significance long before we have the maturity of introspection and self observation. She literally tells us who we are. Later this capacity and right to define us is voluntarily conferred , in large measure, upon our intimate partner.
Because the partner is entrusted with this power to define who we are, our value, and our significance, they exert an immense influence over the quality of the experience of our life. If we perceive them as mirroring us negatively, our reaction is profound. The negativity they are expressing about us may be minor, but the threat that it represents to our self image is major. So is our reaction. In this way, conflict between partners is prone to escalate out of control, even when both parties are well meaning. The stakes are just so high. As personalities , conflict with the partner tends to overwhelm. The experience of fair, informative and appropriately perceived negativity from one's intimate partner is nearly an impossibility. Again, this is due to the vulnerability of the ego combined with it's extreme fragility as a structure of images.
An intimate partner is encouraged to express positivity and mirror good images to their lover, but not negativity, even when appropriate and balanced. The ego just spooks to easily. Over- reaction to criticism expresses first as a defensive counterattack. Negativity projected back onto the complaining partner. This will then provoke an over reaction in them. The chance of a measured communication of simple displeasure then goes out the window. Both partners are relating from the space of an extreme threat to their identity. Appropriate handling of the original issue is lost in a desperate flood of emotion and confusion.
Ego's fragile vulnerability, most specifically to the intimate partner, makes us prone to feeling quickly overwhelmed in any conflict with them, yet conflict will certainly happen. The issue of how to handle conflict appropriately is central to the maintenance of an enduring and authentic relationship. The challenges for ego personalities to attempt this are formidable but unavoidable for couples intent on a mature relationship grounded in truth.
Ego selves just don't relate to others very well. They're too fragile, too needful, too easily spooked and too ruthless when they go off. This situation is not presented for lamentation, nor because it needs to be fixed. It is offered simply for consideration. To be pondered. Held by that part of us that is bigger than this. Clarity of understanding evokes healing.
We all, from infancy, have developed the unquestioned habit of looking outward, to others, to know who we are. They tell us, by their words and actions in relationship with us, what and who we are, our value, and our significance. Other people act as mirrors allowing us to see ourselves. As ego personalities we largely exist as a composite of these external images, mirrored to us by others, internalized and then adopted as identity. Consequently we experience our very beings as threatened when negative, insulting or painful images of us are presented by others.
Thus, using people as external mirrors to better see ourselves, we formed self images and in this way created our ego selves. Without constant vigilance, we run the risk that negative images from others might replace or destroy the positive images we hold of our goodness, value, meaning, and significance.
We are vulnerable because others create our ego selves, good and bad. We are fragile because these ego structures are merely images, without real substance. As ego personality 'selves' it is inevitable that we always feel threatened by others in this way.
The most commonly used and universal strategy for dealing with this insecurity of identity is to attack anyone perceived as threatening. Mirror negativity and deficiency to them, as their quality. Preserve one's own fragile self image by projecting inadequacy onto them. This, of course, will have some predictable effects. First, they will be insulted and wounded. Their ego, also a mere collection of images , will be weakened and the illusory nature of their self, nearly exposed. An immediate counter attack will usually ensue, either overtly or covertly. With both parties constantly maneuvering to protect and preserve feeble, image based, self identity structures, it is easy to set off conflict of this nature in any type of human interaction.
In fact, conflict is an absolutely indispensable component of daily intercourse among ego identified individuals . That is to say, it is an integral part of the coping strategy for everyone, in all of their relationships. The active experience of conflict directs judgmental, critical energies outward, away from your own threatened ego self. It elicits powerful emotions like anger, hatred, rage and contempt. Though distorted and destructive, they give substance and support to the ego. Energy flows. One knows what to do. Action is taken.
Thus, conflict actually serves to convert personality damaging, deficiency revealing , negative mirroring into an experience of self as substantial, and capable. Conflict tells you where you stand, who you are, and what you should do. It gives orientation and is very comforting. Even though the emotions of conflict are negative, they support us when we would , otherwise, experience devastating inadequacy.
Relationships that are structured around conflict elicit this defensive psychic armor; protecting, shielding and defending the fragile ego. If we are to exist as functional, adult personalities we must live, to some degree, in a continual state of conflict. That we all do is self evident.
From early on, we need others and they need us for ego creating, ego enhancing mirroring and support. We also need others and they need us for conflict, and a place to project our own deficiencies, so that we can deny and remain numb to the truth of our own ego vulnerabilty, inadequacy and anxiety. We need contentious others for the armoring, energy, substance, orientation and power evoked in defense of the ego. Ego personalities in relationship simply must have a steady diet of conflict to maintain the integrity of their experience of self.
The inevitability of conflict between ego personalities is best demonstrated in intimate relationship. The ego threat that we seek to defend ourselves against is rooted in our habit of knowing ourselves through others. The one person, historically, that we all most rely on to know ourselves, is our mothers. It is Mom, the unquestioned authority in our infancy and childhood, who informs us about our being, our value, and our significance long before we have the maturity of introspection and self observation. She literally tells us who we are. Later this capacity and right to define us is voluntarily conferred , in large measure, upon our intimate partner.
Because the partner is entrusted with this power to define who we are, our value, and our significance, they exert an immense influence over the quality of the experience of our life. If we perceive them as mirroring us negatively, our reaction is profound. The negativity they are expressing about us may be minor, but the threat that it represents to our self image is major. So is our reaction. In this way, conflict between partners is prone to escalate out of control, even when both parties are well meaning. The stakes are just so high. As personalities , conflict with the partner tends to overwhelm. The experience of fair, informative and appropriately perceived negativity from one's intimate partner is nearly an impossibility. Again, this is due to the vulnerability of the ego combined with it's extreme fragility as a structure of images.
An intimate partner is encouraged to express positivity and mirror good images to their lover, but not negativity, even when appropriate and balanced. The ego just spooks to easily. Over- reaction to criticism expresses first as a defensive counterattack. Negativity projected back onto the complaining partner. This will then provoke an over reaction in them. The chance of a measured communication of simple displeasure then goes out the window. Both partners are relating from the space of an extreme threat to their identity. Appropriate handling of the original issue is lost in a desperate flood of emotion and confusion.
Ego's fragile vulnerability, most specifically to the intimate partner, makes us prone to feeling quickly overwhelmed in any conflict with them, yet conflict will certainly happen. The issue of how to handle conflict appropriately is central to the maintenance of an enduring and authentic relationship. The challenges for ego personalities to attempt this are formidable but unavoidable for couples intent on a mature relationship grounded in truth.
Ego selves just don't relate to others very well. They're too fragile, too needful, too easily spooked and too ruthless when they go off. This situation is not presented for lamentation, nor because it needs to be fixed. It is offered simply for consideration. To be pondered. Held by that part of us that is bigger than this. Clarity of understanding evokes healing.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
An Expansive View of Mind
What is the relationship of the mind to the body? How does this play out in awakening? The mind has local powers, capacities and sense perceptions that are oriented to, and dependent upon, the body. The mind is an organized field of locally gathered knowledge assembled from sensory perceptions understood in a context grounded in instinct. Enhancing this perceptual knowledge are powers of image formation, memory, conceptualization, logic, and rational thought. Emotions complete the picture. All prioritized around, and primarily concerned with, the affairs of the physical body. This pretty well describes the societal consensus of beliefs regarding the body-mind, and if it was a complete description of the knowledge sources informing the mind, it would be simple to grasp. As a one dimensional phenomena, this really is what human beings are about.
The complication is that humans are multi-dimensional beings. Other sources contribute direct knowings, sensings, and contexts of intelligence to the mind. Although subtle and seemingly vague or ephemeral in comparison to the five senses, they become distinct and profound when cultivated. Our powers for being complete humans are dependent upon, and reside in these other-dimensional realms. The extra-corporeal perceptions, in fact, are vital, and indispensable to the comprehension and inhabiting of or our true identities.
Regardless of this truth, what we usually wind up with is a multi-dimensional mind display referenced to one dimension , physical reality. Consequently, a lot of mind content seems confusing, out of place or irrelevant. It ends up being ignored, dismissed, and discarded. One's reality closes in and stagnates.
What is lost is nothing less than our humanity. Knowledge, understanding, intelligence and capacity originating in the dimension of Presence are screened out or, at best, misunderstood and undervalued. Essential Aspects of Presence of Being are not allowed to instruct us or to imbue in us the direct experiential wisdom of our identity, our capacity, and our potential.
Non-local, extra-corporeal and trans-dimensional knowledge are part of our birth right; the power of their perception innate to the potential of every human. The key to accessing this treasure lies in the cultivation of our sense of Presence, the most attainable dimension, nearest to, but beyond, physical manifestation.
It must be realized and understood that we substitute mental and emotional states for Essence. The understanding of these states as false and obstructing to our vision, frees the way for us to activate other more authentic and expansive capacities, until then, habitually overlooked.
The complication is that humans are multi-dimensional beings. Other sources contribute direct knowings, sensings, and contexts of intelligence to the mind. Although subtle and seemingly vague or ephemeral in comparison to the five senses, they become distinct and profound when cultivated. Our powers for being complete humans are dependent upon, and reside in these other-dimensional realms. The extra-corporeal perceptions, in fact, are vital, and indispensable to the comprehension and inhabiting of or our true identities.
Regardless of this truth, what we usually wind up with is a multi-dimensional mind display referenced to one dimension , physical reality. Consequently, a lot of mind content seems confusing, out of place or irrelevant. It ends up being ignored, dismissed, and discarded. One's reality closes in and stagnates.
What is lost is nothing less than our humanity. Knowledge, understanding, intelligence and capacity originating in the dimension of Presence are screened out or, at best, misunderstood and undervalued. Essential Aspects of Presence of Being are not allowed to instruct us or to imbue in us the direct experiential wisdom of our identity, our capacity, and our potential.
Non-local, extra-corporeal and trans-dimensional knowledge are part of our birth right; the power of their perception innate to the potential of every human. The key to accessing this treasure lies in the cultivation of our sense of Presence, the most attainable dimension, nearest to, but beyond, physical manifestation.
It must be realized and understood that we substitute mental and emotional states for Essence. The understanding of these states as false and obstructing to our vision, frees the way for us to activate other more authentic and expansive capacities, until then, habitually overlooked.
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