Consciousness is everything

I heard a great speaker recently, Dennis Merrit Jones, whose message was similar to my blog posts.  Dennis began his talk with the idea that our consciousness goes before us to announce our arrival before we get to where we are going.  This being said, it is our consciousness that needs work, not our lives.  Fix the consciousness and our lives will fall into greater order and harmony.

Consciousness is awareness (i.e., what we are aware of).  When I put my awareness on Itself (i.e., I am aware that I am that which notices what is happening in my life) I abide in a neutral state.  This neutral state is the portal through which God expresses itself in, as, and through me.

In preparation for next weeks meditation retreat with Adyashanti (and as a daily spiritual practice) I move my awareness to the Observer.  From here I watch my psyche or little self have its drama and fears and hopes... As the Observer, there is no good and there is no bad.  There is no low self esteem and there is no high self esteem.  There is only space. This space if filled with potential...the potential to be everything that God intended me to be.

Each time I move my awareness to Itself and let go of that which my little self is holding on to I am making room for a shift in consciousness.  I am taking a step closer to my True Potential.

(I will not be posting next week while I am on retreat.  The next post will be during the week of August 12th)

experiencing the inner presence

If you have Adya's book "Falling into Grace" check out the sections "To Be Everything and Nothing at the Same Time" and "The Great Return" on pages 93-98.  He asks:

"Is it possible to start to feel, in this very moment, that our bodies, our minds, and even our personalities are ways through which our spiritual essence connects with the world around us?" (p. 93) 

I love what Adya is saying, that it is our spiritual essence expressing through our bodies, minds and personalities that connects with the world around us.  It can be so easy for me to use my mind to navigate through life, but that is completely different than connecting with my spiritual essence and allowing that to express itself through my mind, body and personality.

Adya suggests that we "Look within, right now, in this very instant. Don't search for anything...just look, listen, and feel, and allow yourself to experience that inner presence, that inner transparency to spirit." (p. 97)

"Only then do we get on with the business of how to be what we really are, how to not be lost in our minds. Use your body and mind as an expression of your essence, as a way to connect with others and as a way to remind others of the truth of what we are." (p. 98)  

How lovely it would be to interact with others from a place of unity...without comparison, competition, judgment, control, jealousy, insecurity, rejection...  How different the world would be if our primary goal was to help each to recognize our True Nature, to know that we are all One Divine expression of life and of love.

I will connect with that inner presence frequently throughout my day.  I will relax into that space and open my heart allowing the energy of God's love to pour through me and as me.  And so it is.

a new way of looking at one's self

The following is part of a letter that Adyashanti sent to those of us who are preparing for a retreat with him in August.  He is talking about coming to the retreat with an open mind and an open heart, but his ideas can be applied to our daily lives as we practice witnessing and releasing.

"This clear and new way of looking at one’s self is one that assumes no position that is for or against what is seen. Therefore there is no aversion to or grasping at ideas, thoughts, beliefs, or past experiences. This is a moment to moment looking, investigating, questioning, and “seeing” into the very structure of our conditioning without contracting into new ideas or making new conclusions based on what one sees.

In resting within an open and free awareness of what is and in being willing, without flinching, to see how we literally create and recreate suffering and ignorance from moment to moment, we can come to a place where we exist that is prior to all limitations of the body and mind. We awaken to the Unborn, Undying, and Uncreated, i.e., one’s True Self.

I encourage everyone to engage in this challenging moment to moment investigation. Don’t wait for a more ideal time in the future. Put an end to delaying the Revelation of Truth that is always in the present moment—in the now. Surrender to the Now without hesitation. Simply stop, be still, and effortlessly rest in the core of your Being. Surrender to this core of Being. In perfect surrender Truth is met; illusion is dropped; and Liberating Freedom is revealed to be one’s very Self."

Sounds like what I wrote about last week from Michael Singer...letting go of mental boundaries.

As I am doing more and more of these spiritual practices I am seeing the need to let it go, let it all go, the judgments, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, desires, expectations and perceptions... Letting go of the conditioned beliefs and resting in the core of my Being to allow Truth to be revealed.

As I have been practicing this, I have run into some of my blocks.  I have also run into situations where life demands a response, situations in which letting go of all thoughts does not seem practical.  For example, one of my teenage children has been procrastinating (according to my standards anyway) about an online summer class.  I really wanted to jump in and try to fix the situation.  Letting go was feeling far beyond my comfort zone.  However, I decided to give myself permission to feel the discomfort and then I went into the silence and asked for guidance.  What came to me first was to continue to walk through my discomfort without getting involved in the outer situation, and, second to see this child as One with God, letting go of all limiting thoughts and beliefs about the situation and about my teenager.

Adya is talking about letting go of clinging to all beliefs and thoughts, not just the limiting thoughts but all thoughts.  When we cling (even to the positive thoughts) we contract and build an identity around the thoughts.  We begin to have expectations about what is or what should be or what is good versus what is bad.  Adya is talking about being in the Now without relying on anything that the mind is saying.  He is talking about a Higher Truth revealing itself when attachment to all thought, belief, perception, desire, expectation is gone.  He is talking about transcending the limited sense of self, transcending the belief in a separate self, and merging with Truth.  

It 'seems' like there is a lot to be lost by letting go to this extent (the loss of the egoic, separate self) and yet there is a lot to be gained: Self experienced as Liberating Freedom, Unconditional Love and Pure Joy.

facing reality without mental boundaries

I found a lot of meaning in the following quote from Michael Singer (I don't know where it came from...probably one of his CDs):

"I free myself from the limits of my mental model. I accept reality.  I go beyond my model by not believing it. I face reality without mental boundaries.  I go beyond my comfort zone by handling what is happening NOW and relaxing."  

As I have said in recent blog posts, my spiritual practices include giving myself permission to have feelings and letting go of thoughts related to the feelings and situations in my life.  It became clear to me this week that accepting reality (i.e., what is showing up in my life) has absolutely nothing to do with the past or the future although, it requires conscious effort on my part to separate the present from the past and future.  When certain situations happen I sometimes find myself saying things like "Of course, things always turn out this way" or "When am I going to get this right?" or "So and so always acts this way" or I may just expect certain areas of my life to go in a certain direction because they always have in the past.  In other words, I fall prey to expecting my future to turn out like my past.

Back to Michael's quote.  These projections or expectations form the limits of my mental model.

I can choose to let all of these limits go.  I can focus on what is happening now, feel the feelings that are present in this moment (they will move through me as long as I let go of the thoughts that keep them in place), and relax.  Just because I have encountered a similar situation in the past has nothing to do with what will happen now or in the future.  If I stay stuck in negativity or worry about not being able to move forward I will block myself from receiving the good that the Universe has to offer me.  Perhaps I will block myself from knowing God.  God can be found only in this moment.  If I am consumed with worry or concern about the future or if I stay stuck with my limited mental model about how life works I will miss the opportunity to open my heart to God expressing Itself in this moment.

The reality about my life is that I have no idea what is in store for me.  I only have this moment to deal with.    I would much rather use this moment to open myself to God's grace and allow my life to unfold according to God's will, as opposed to viewing life through the lens of my limiting beliefs which are based on past experiences.

I face reality without mental boundaries.

the heart of reality

Sometimes when I am unable to let go of feelings and situations it is because I am holding onto thoughts.  The thoughts keep the feelings in place.  Thoughts such as "Why does it have to be this way?" or "Why can't so and so just be nicer, or calmer, or smarter...?" or "When am I going to change?" keep us from accepting and dealing with reality and allowing the feelings to pass.  

A good practice is to hold our thoughts lightly.  This can be hard to do because we hold on to our thoughts in order to keep our lives in order so we feel comfortable, in control...   Letting go of thoughts can leave us feeling vulnerable.  Adya says that

"Beyond this...void of not knowing, there is something greater: the heart of reality... The heart of reality is a vast expanse that we actually live in.  What if we began to relate to each other from this place where we know that our thoughts aren't ultimately true, but we're still going to use them?  We're still going to communicate aren't we?" (falling into grace, p. 85)

He goes on to say that we would still tell each other our stories knowing that they only approximate truth.

If we accepted that our thoughts only approximate truth "Can you imagine how much more lightly you'd hold your mind, the next thought in your mind, the thought that tries to convince you to struggle? What would happen if your mind were disarmed?  What would happen if you suddenly realized that happiness, peace, love and freedom weren't going to come from your mind?" (falling into grace, p. 85)

During this Independence Day please join me in freeing ourselves from the confines of the (limited) mind and the psyche.  Watch your thoughts but do not attach to them.  Feel the feelings without attaching meaning to them and allow them to move through you.  Deal with what is right in front of you.

God is our Source of happiness, peace, love and freedom.  Those states are already within us. We just need to remove the blocks.

Happy 4th of July!