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When I studied art, Ways of Seeing by John Berger was a set work. He states that the process of seeing is less spontaneous and natural than we tend to believe. A large part of seeing depends on habit and convention.
If that’s the case- and I do agree with him- we need to set ourselves the work of seeing things differently to have a better understanding of life.
Fear
In the post entitled Embrace Death, I started with death. Yes, we need to look at death, but also what it is about death that is avoided because of fear. We need to look at dismantling fears- dismantling fears by not being fearful of “the other”, of something different, because what we do, on the whole, is build our little castles, build our little boxes and protect them. It’s fear driven: protect these lives because they’re under threat, from life! Isn’t that ironic?
We hang onto stuff. We don’t let go of stuff. We need to let go of many of our perceptions because it is those perceptions, our constructs, that bind us in a fearful way. If we can just undo those knots. Then we can unravel the fear- and much more.
Here. I’ll take an excerpt from a Buddhist teaching called The Lotus Dharma:
Six knots are untied one after the other.
When six are undone one vanishes as well (all six sense organs from mind- untie all and mind is free).
Choose an organ that is all penetrating to enter the holy stream and attain Bodhi.
Pick a sense. For me, I choose hearing- and there are hearing meditations you can do. I’ve short circuited mine, but a starting point is to sit and imagine your ears growing, or expanding their capability. Hear all sounds at once around you. Don’t attach meaning to any sound. Let them come, let them go (it’s way harder than it sounds). Then, if you like, imagine hearing not just traffic on a nearby road, but traffic far away, around the world. Planes, ships as you expand your ears. And listen also to your breathing, the ringing in your ears- which hopefully is not tinnitus but your guides trying to be heard.
A very simple method to clear the mind is a candle meditation. Against a white or neutral background, stare -not too focused mind- into the middle of a candle flame at eye level-where the blue meets the yellow, without holding any thought. Try that for two minutes. Sounds like a short time… but our minds you know…Also from The Lotus Dharma: “Old habits flow like torrents”… and so do thoughts and attachment to thought.
I’m told that walking slowly up to a chalkboard works too.
Satori
If Buddhism, meditation is not something you are prepared to use as a tool, some suggest psychedelics as a way of changing your perspective, looking at things differently.
Zen Buddhism talks about Satori- a kick in the eye.
Psychedelics provide a kick in the eye. A dear friend was well on his sad way to becoming his alcoholic father until he tried LSD which, for him, saved him. He’s a geek so he prefers the term reboot. LSD rebooted his hard drive.
Well known author Graham Hancock speaks about how ayahuasca rebooted him and cure him of an addiction to marijuana.
Something that had a profound effect on me was when some being took over a trance medium and observed those in the room for many minutes. The atmosphere was indescribable- an examination of sorts, a suspended reality, not least because in that time she did not breathe. Impossibly long for her to still be alive and well, which she was.
Then there are the apports I received- turquoise chunks, stone arrow heads, rock from the Pleiades. These materialised between my hands and the medium’s hands when a guide was in control of her body.
These and many other things took my experience(s) beyond the physical realm, disproving or transcending what we are taught- at school, by science etc.
Falsehoods
Time. Time is a biggie. The idea of time as something linear is false, meaning that the linear nature of our lives is false. It’s a crutch to enable us to more easily make sense of what is, in any case, an illusory world. Why is linear time false? It doesn’t exist in spirit and mankind has tied it to the manifest world, full of illusion.
There is more unseen and undiscovered than there is that is material, that we can literally grasp.
All our crutches are an impediment to seeing differently and beyond our noses.
What makes people afraid is the constructs, The Matrix. Being bound by them brings about fear of being different and outside the norm and the consequences of that.
Fear, Again
Think how many great leaders have been outside the norm, setting wonderful examples to others. Then, what is there to be afraid of except that some were shunned, stoned, killed? Ok, there is something to be afraid of. Let’s talk about being afraid of evil, of good and evil.
There are two forces- love and fear- and it’s a huge challenge it seems for people to get their heads around the fact that their lives may be fear driven.
So, to illustrate, I need to balance the lilies in the field with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
According to Abraham Maslow, we have five categories of needs. From the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation.
Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up, or before higher can begin to emerge.
This contrasts with Luke 12:27-40 King James Version (the version spirit guides use- explained in Gifts)
27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.
30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.
31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
What spiritual teachings say (such as the above passage from the Bible) is: forsake the hierarchy of needs. Let go and let God. Set your eyes on God as the prize and you will be rewarded.
Change vs Stagnation
Our conditioned ways of seeing- the ones that bind us and that cause us to have fixed perceptions, fly in the face of the one constant- that constant being change. They are opposite or out of sync with what is real- and that is change.
Change does not have to be something to be afraid of. It can and should be embraced. Once you embrace change it opens you up to understanding more, because letting go doesn’t mean forgetting or dissing. It just means looking at and becoming part of an ever-bigger picture- and so expanding, not shrinking- which fear-based thinking leads to.
Fear based thinking stops any flow. It leads to stagnation- truncated and dammed up lives. Dammed minds equate to mental problems, disease.
Water flows. We are water based and that is not just in the physical sense. Water is our everything really. And water flows in ways we cannot control. Dams tend to burst and that, within ourselves, is akin either to an awakening- or a death or destruction of the dam wall we have constructed.
Fear, Again
Fear makes us unwell and out of sync with the flow.
Fear divides us. Borders do that too. Nations are divided up, divided against each other. Nationalities cause rifts when the world is a global village. Control, the need for control, the sheep mentality. How do you think Hitler came to power? If you believe in a war between good and evil you will see that the world has never been so ready for an Antichrist.
The “global village” causes fear. Disregarding borders threatens powers that be. Look at migrant movements from Africa into Europe and across the world, which exemplifies a change in perceptions. The internet similarly. Things that were “fixed” only a few decades before are not fixed.
Like it or not constructs are being dismantled. That does increase the resistance to change from those who created or perpetuate or enforce the constructs that bind societies, because an awakening will disempower them.
Hanging into the perceptions of previous generations Is the equivalent of being a flat earther once Columbus had not sailed over the world’s edge.
Old ways, old fear-based rules are redundant. Don’t shout after your running children that they will hurt themselves. Rather caution care but urge them to explore (it’s foolish in any case to instruct children with fear because they will explore regardless. Fear is taught, learned.
Be Childlike
Which brings us to being childlike and how good and natural that is. Luke 18: 16/17
But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”
Be childlike, be open. It will help if we start to lose some of our constructs.
It’s nothing new. We need to go with the river, The universe flows. It’s not stagnant. It’s moving- It’s motion, not being set. Being set in your ways is contrary to the nature of life, if you look at the natural world, the universe. Everything is decaying and growing.
Humans stagnate when they go against the flow, having lost the plot.
Earlier I mentioned balancing the lilies in the field with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Seem extreme-like you have to become a nun or monk?
There’s a starting point perhaps, without chucking up your entire life to become as a lily…There’s a question of balance.
We are part of the manifest world after all. We just need to see beyond that. See the divinity. See that we are part of the same- that we are all slivers of God.
Balance
Back to balance. Being a crystal swinger- namaste all damn day with tinkly fairy music is Not balanced and is another distortion- almost equally to the box and picket fence view, It’s unrealistic. It’s like mediating on a hilltop and looking at life from a distance. It’s all very well but not balanced. Meditate in a train station and you are really getting somewhere.
Balance is synonymous with equanimity- not drama.
Being dramatic suggests a knee jerk reaction. We need to respond. We need to look; we need to have perspective. Reacting is often based on fears, when preconceptions and judgements are challenged, we tend to react fearfully.
Reacting joyfully is a very different matter. That is experiencing love and going with the flow, so sometimes the balance, is a dichotomy. You have to filter your responses to the fear-based construct that is the world so as not to filter your joy. Joy is often something we witness- something beyond ourselves such as a sunrise, a sunset, beauty.
Equanamity
Drama vs equanimity. Do you opt for the river or the whirlpool of life? How much are you strapping to your back? What motivates you? What pricks you into action? Is it Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
Reflect, pause, look within. Don’t cast about, don’t project.
Being introspective can release a lot of emotions. Don’t avoid that. Pain and suffering are spirit’s gift to humanity. It’s how we grow- working through that.
Sing the Blues
There’s a reason why many of the most popular songs are not necessarily the happy songs, are they? They are full of ups and downs- heartrending tragedies sometimes. It’s interesting that those move us, in a positive way.
The sad things, the blues- people sing the blues. You get through the blues There’s no way around the blues. Popular songs are about life’s struggles and rising above them I guess- or just looking at and voicing them and getting them off our chest.
A problem shared is a problem half solved- and a way of connecting with others, crossing borders and barriers- even if they are only internal. Especially if they are internal!
We are souls not humans. We are souls on a human journey. That is a gift from God. The other gift that can be problematic is free will. We don’t belong to the earth. We are on and of the earth while we are here but happens when we are not here? When we don’t see through a glass, darkly? When we are in spirit. The bardo, before we come back- or when we are asleep?
I’ll talk about that in other posts, for sure!
