Snap out of the Trance

Notice discomfort (what doesn't taste right) comes up to the surface to be purged or let go. Let awareness do what it wants to do. It will be drawn into the feelings and experiences outside and then on the inside of the skin. The inward environment has things to listen to. If you get hijacked by a thought, make no effort to get rid of it, change, alter or control it. Deep listening is simply noticing things as they are. The more you relax, the more the spaciousness grows obvious. What you miss before stands out. Awareness loses fixation on things so to rest in its natural state. Thoughts, feelings, objects arise. Amidst all this, tune into what openness feels like. In this sense of opennness, every moment, awareness is present. We need not exert effort to grow more aware. Space itself is highly awake. Entities are not "aware." Awarness does not originate at any particular point. Awareness itself is already in a profound state of listening. It is open, not picking or choosing, judging, fearing or manipulating. It is simply being itself. As awareness happens, you are no longer in the trance of thought. See and feel for yourself what its like to be awareness. No answer exists to questions of how to get here. This is not about a goal, not about controlling thought or feeling. Awareness itself is not aiming to change you. Everything happens spontaneously. Its simply drawing you into True Nature.

Three views of Life

Our view on a given situation depends on our magnification, that is, our relative physical, mental emotional closeness to or distance from it. What may be viewed as a conflict or issue close-up may seem like part of a larger harmonious system from a wider vantage point.  Where one person sees a source of tension, another sees as a passing wave in the vast ocean of order. All views are equally correct as they are simply different points of view. How we experience life varies based on our level of consciousness.  Let's reflect on three views on life;

1. As Completely Random

We can look at life from an extremely passive perspective: assuming our existence is a bit precarious, that we have little or no control over things, not over how we came to be born, or who our parents and social conditions are or how we make our way through existence.  Some people view themselves as a pure accident, that everything is a random occurrence, from how the Earth and life came to be to more complex interactions.  What if things that happen inside or external to our bodies, felt like they do not belong or do not even feel connected to other happenings? Does life sometimes feel like it is a thing that happens to you?

2. As Controlled by External Authority

Another view on life is everything that occurs unfolds under the authority of a higher force beyond our control that we somehow feel obliged to obey.  From this view, we are at the mercy of the world around us, still, to a degree helpless, yet having a slight influence on the direction of our lives, provided we follow the rules which have been laid out for us. Sometimes we may push the envelope or bend the rules. As confidence grows, we may also rediscover a journey to reclaim personal power. Our sense of identity, success and self-worth may all seem to be wrapped up in the results of our actions.

3. As Energy

To see that everything is a play of energy pulsing on and off in space, changes how we perceive and interact with what occurs. If energy is us, flows within, through and beyond us, and we decide how to respond to everything, then personal responsibility takes on new signficance. We move through perceptions of order and disorder, love and fear, pleasure and pain like waves, with opportunity toa gain insight. As we realize this, we no longer panic about whatever is arising. From this view, at every moment, everyone has access to the same patterns of energy.  We each have unique filters, conditionings and ways of experiencing.  The moment we see space is connective, we begin to understand that we are not exclusively a body or what creates our adopted identity.  The stream of a candle is a stream of hot gas just like each human is a complex flow of energy that is whirling and dancing through space. What happens as fear ceases to control our life choices? We may fear on the surface of getting burnt by fire, getting sick, losing a relationship, your job, a contract or something else we currently hold dear.  Yet, we can come to see a continuity of energy flow, the rhythm of comings and goings. 

Ultimately, the perspective we take on life and a given situation, is based on our self- and wider insight into consciousness. Being in control and being ourselves cannot be understood without recognizing something out of control and what it is to not be ourselves.  Yet, our attention is captured by what is moving in the foreground rather than what is in the background and relatively still. We actually notice far more detail. Our views on ourselves, and life and our conditions, are limited to what we are taught is important. We pay attention only to what our values define as our priorities.  As our perception expands, what we notice changes. How we spend time also changes. 

You are that

The ego mind interprets the tangible, the perceptible, that which is subject to change.  It views dreams through its own self-centred filters.  How do you know that you are paying more attention to self? What exactly is i that observes the changeable?

That which is the essence of being is the silent witness that can only be pointed toward.  It does not arise and disappear. It is changeless, conscious presence, in perfect harmony with effortless silence.  One consciousness sees no division or difference.  It is awareness felt in ways that which words simply cannot convey.  The universe reveals itself in subtle ways. As self identity no longer thinks itself as separate, one being awakens to recognize itself operating in the inner realm of consciousness.

"Because you fnd the dream creations transitory in relation to the waking state there is said to be a difference. This is only apparent and not real." -Ramana Maharishi

"Part of our psyche is not in time and not in space. They are only an illusion, time and space, and so in a certain part of our psyche time does not exist at all." - Carl Jung

Be a conscious dreamer

Every moment, even while apparently awake, you are dreaming.  While asleep, the daytime activity is no longer a distraction and you may be more alert than asleep. During daytime, the dreaming continues. You are conscious and aware or not.  So you have selective awareness? Why is that? And what is to be done about it?

Consider celestial bodies you only see with physical eyes during night or daytime. These celestial bodies do not disappear when suppressed by sunlight or hidden by the darkness.  They always exist.  They echo conscious dreaming.

It all comes back to being aware of who you are.  Have you ever met "you"? Are you aware? The seeker answers and the finder does not. What happens when there is no dreaming? Illusion is absorbed.  The 'you' disappears and all that is left is pure space.   If someone asks, say nothing.  Dreaming is the film. You mirror the world.

See through your questions

Every choice you make invites you to awaken to varying degrees.  Ask what prompts you to ask questions. This is grounded in the belief you do not know and that you perceive limitations and needs.  In reality, nothing is known and nothing is needed.  On the surface, a person is restless and anxious about what does not yet appear to be done.  Beneath the surface, everything exists in perfect peace.  Problems are perceived as you define and limit the self.  When you choose to create time and space, you cannot know freedom until you recognize and abandon self-created illusions.