Month: November 2016

Being afraid of death is like the dreamer being scared to wake up, because the dreamer doesn’t remember waking life while he is asleep. Metaphorically speaking, you are in the dream right now, reading this blog post. You likely do not remember what is it to be “awake,” because such “amnesia” is a necessary requirement of buying completely into the dream. Never-the-less, you are not just the dreamer: what you truly are is too vast to articulate, and entire other reality systems much more real than this one are available to you when you “wake up.”

Does it hurt when you end a dream and wake up? No, the transition is very natural. Every day we wake up from our previous night’s sleep and we typically think nothing of it. Physical death is a similarly effortless transition. Countless Near Death Experiencers confirm that there is no pain in the transition itself from physical life to the non-physical one. In fact, just the opposite- the transition is incredibly liberating and full of unspeakable love and joy!

Living in the physical- dreaming that you are actually form- is the much more constraining and potentially challenging state. We are free to thrive here, to fully enjoy the contrast and all the experiences that this life has to offer- but we do not need to fear the end of it in the least. Death is release, the great liberator, a joyful awakening into our much more native state! Not only do we not need to fear that, we can in fact look forward to it as the wonderful, expansive, celebratory return home that it is! And indeed when we dismiss the specter of the fear of death, we are able to live our lives more in joyful alignment with the immortal spirits that we truly are!

No matter what the belief, people will tend to find data to support it. In fact, over a lifetime people tend to assemble complex fortresses of data to support what they already believe. As they do this, most people believe that their viewpoint is “true,” and that others’ viewpoints are “false.” Furthermore, many believe some forms (ideas, beliefs, identities, or actions) are inherently “good” while others are inherently “evil.” To those who are so deeply accustomed to living in a universe of duality, this can seem natural.

At the deepest level, there is fundamental Truth. But that Truth transcends all of the form of the physical universe. It transcends all of the ideas, all of the words, all of the beliefs, all of the objects, all of the contrast. While there is no word that can name it (since words are also form), perhaps we can attempt to speak to what that Truth is by using this one simple word: LOVE!

While forms themselves are not innately “good” or “bad,” since a consciousness must always assign meaning to them in order for them to have meaning, the movement of consciousness through intent does either align more closely or less closely to Truth or Divine Love. This is why it is so very important to deeply explore the nature of our own motivations, and to act from loving intent (which aligns with Truth) rather than fearful intent (which temporarily does not). Loving intent might also be described as: selflessness, personal responsibility, humility, and acceptance. It includes the willingness to be wrong, to seek out truth and grow in the acceptance and service of others, even at the full expense of what one has previously believed.

The challenge is, our beliefs tend to become invisible to us: they tend to appear to us to be assumptions about how reality really is, rather than beliefs. In other words, once our beliefs are set, the data that arrives almost always appears to support the existing belief. But in fact, the same data is being utilized by different conscious participants in different ways.

We often don’t think about spiritual growth in this way. Instead, we fight for the form. We try to make sure our way of seeing the world is furthered. We worry about it, we fret and fight that the rest of the world may adapt to the correctness of what we believe to be right. But the correctness of belief is not what this universe is about. We are here to develop the quality of our intent, the quality of ourselves as truly loving beings. We are here to face our fears and to accept personal responsibility. We are here to actually accept and love one another! That, far more than any claim of form, will further God’s plan (the ultimate loving intent) for this universe!

You are immortal awareness that surpasses all form. That is not a metaphor or just an abstract concept- you actually surpass the entirety of your physical experience and all the form in it. The only reason you may not be aware of that fact is that you agreed to be bound to the constraints of having a defined experience within form, and that experience requires a limited physically focused stimulus-set, understanding, and memory. The fact you agreed to have this experience does not change the much more fundamental fact that you actually are an immortal spirit who surpasses all of the form.

The experience of form can be very rich, very convincing- and at times, very painful. We end up quite naturally believing that the scenery of the stage is real. We go very, very deep into the illusion. As we do, we artificially define ourselves by choosing some form (ideas, identities, thoughts) over other form (contrasting ideas). This is all expected and natural, except that we have gone so far into the illusion that we have “lost sight of the forest for the trees!” As the world challenges us deeply, we end up taking shelter within the illusory forms of the ego to stay safe and avoid pain. And as we do that, we naturally end up rejecting parts of our experience.

When you reject your experience, you are choosing illusory form over the infinite formlessness. This is because when you reject something you are choosing to stand against some form, and that can only be done as a form itself. Your consciousness ends up lending credence and solidity to the form that it is trying to stand against. As the form strengthens, so does the (typically negative) experience that it brings.

For instance, if someone perceives what is occurring in the world as terrible, and rejects it, then he or she will be giving energy toward that negative perception and will experience the negative, constricting emotions that go along with that rejection. If someone perceives that they must struggle, then they will experience struggle. If someone rejects their body, then their experience in it will be more difficult. Rejection is a “low vibration” energy, because it is an occurrence of some part of All That Is temporarily turning against itself. Acceptance- also called Love- is a “high vibration” energy, because it aligns with the innate natural unification that exists at the deepest level of our connection with All That Is. Rejection is an expression of fear; acceptance is an expression of love! (Yes there are times that it is proper to “reject” something unloving, or to intercede to stop violence- but here I am speaking about rejection at its most fundamental.)

The source of all power lies beyond all form! Acceptance then is regaining power: by relinquishing your need to resist “what is,” you automatically take a step away from the illusion of form and naturally move closer towards the infinite, powerful, and peaceful formlessness that gave rise to the form in the first place.

You do not need any single thing to be happy. Happiness is available in every moment at the root of experience. Yet we experience unhappiness. We experience unhappiness because we buy into thoughts and beliefs about the current situation or stimulus that are counter to our true nature. It is never the situation or stimulus itself that causes us to be unhappy- it is our interpretation of the situation or stimulus that causes us to be unhappy.

The Source of happiness is within you! You do not need to go anywhere to find it. You do not need to do anything or attain anything to be what you are. What you are is conscious awareness- and awareness, when it hasn’t been obscured by getting lost in the illusion of form, is profoundly blissful! When you allow yourself to let go and just be what you truly are, joy is always the natural experience. Joy is the native and natural state!

In order to re-familiarize yourself with what you really are while you are inside this “dream” of physical life, you can allow yourself to completely let go- at least for awhile- of all that you are not. You are not your thoughts, you are not your judgments, you are not your expectations, you are not your beliefs. You are not your responsibilities, you are not your abilities or disabilities, and you are not your pain. You are the awareness that beholds those things. You are the you that feels most like you to you! You are the awareness which is “wearing” those thoughts, judgments, expectations, and beliefs for a while.  As awareness, you always have permission to let go of your thoughts about the present moment, and to just fully experience the present moment for exactly what it is without any resistance or rejection. If you do so deeply enough you will find that beneath all the pain, there is always joy!