“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

—Henry David Thoreau, author, 1817-1862

So the Fool has arrived into balance.  And then what?  While he has come far in establishing harmony in his life, his life may well be far from over.  But he has his health, peace of mind and has met many encounters with difficult and and trying circumstances.  Perhaps this Fool has mastered life.  Perhaps not.

The Devil is not necessarily clothed in horns and a red suit showing us the way to evil outside of our self.  The devil can represent the ignorance, hopelessness and arrogance that we each carry.  Sometimes the mundane and ordinary concerns of the material world bind us to a life that does not produce any gifts to mankind, personal growth and learning.  If we are a dentist duly performing our duty day after day, it is hard to see anything beyond the need to provide for our family, pay the mortgage,  socialize with friends and thus go on like this day after day.   These material needs may be innocent but represent such security that most people cling to them as if they are the most important part of life.  This system is so common and so compelling that it represents the better part of the mass of life unlived as Thoreau claims above but it is a form of slavery and avoidance.  My point is that while we Fools do need to get a handle on the basics of existance, to stay stuck in this place is like playing the first part of the movie over and over again and never seeing the conclusion because you are afraid to go there.  The price that our Fool pays is very dear, because the material existance leads to an empty life of despair.  What do they say?  Many people are living a life of quiet desperation.  That life is the devil within us.

Sudden change seems to be the release from this type of self made prison.  Sometimes we call these changes midlife crisis.  Sometimes divorce or disease or job loss forces change upon us.  But, upon us the life we have built so carefully year after year comes crashing down.  Ususally a monumental crisis forces us to look within and then change.  While these sudden changes are generally emotionally traumatizing for a period, only large crises can generate sufficient power to shake some people to the core to see what is really there.

Like a lightening bolt hitting us, we are humbled by the force that we do not control or contain.   With this force comes the truth revealed about that situation.  And the Fool can see that some of his former beliefs were based on false impressions.  The job, diseased body, death, or disfunctional partnership emerges as the culprit to show us that nothing is permanent and that everything changes.

No longer disguised in our former life, the Fool emerges with a serene calm.  Inspiration and hope are restored as our Fool places his future in the mystery of life knowing that everything will end up alright.  The Fool is a stronger person who is at peace with the world.

But, no rest for the weary Fool.  That peace that comes from tragedy cannot last forever either.  It is in those dreamy and calm moments that our Fool can become susceptable to fantasy, deception and distortion based upon a false and dreamy picture of the future.  Like the moonlight, the creative imagination is only a reflection of the mind and can wander into fantasy of exuberance or of fear and anxiety about the future causing the Fool to feel lost and bewildered.

But, a little further down the path, clarity arises with the light of the Sun on a new fresh morning.  The Fool is nearly ready to start on a new life with cheerful energy and enthusiasm.   He has been humbled but has the self assurance to stand up and face a new day.  A strong Fool will draw to him everything he needs to understand and realize the goodness that the world can bring.

As if reborn anew, the ego was shattered, allowing the true self to shine through.  Joy is experienced as this Fool leaves the rotting corpse of the ego and its whole manifest universe behind.  The game that was playing out was a drama built by the self for actualization and is no longer needed.  The Fool is cleansed and refreshed, a better and wiser person, able to choose which values to cherish and which to discard.  This lucky Fool emerges victorious as he better understands his values and purpose in living this life.  Doubt and hesitation is replaced with the energy to create his own reality and follow his true dream.

Re-entering the world with new vitality and more understanding the Fool has become whole again.  The false world vision of the ego has been met head on and crashed to the ground and the true self has emerged with a smile and a wink.  Happiness and fulfillment are the result regardless of material situation.  The Fool has learned that nothing is permanent and that we come to this world with nothing and leave that way.

This realization allows the Fool to give of himself freely and render service by sharing the gifts that he has developed.  Thus, his accomplishments are many.  Our Fool has found the meaning of his life and the courage to pursue it.

This cycle ends and another cycle begins in a never ending game called life.  A new Journey begins.

“He dares to be a fool,

and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.”

–James Gibbons Huneker, music writer and critic, 1857-1921

This life is but a projection of our consciousness as if by mirrors and a reflection of light and sounds.  The Fool is trapped in his own mirror and the journey is not what we thought it should be.  As the Fool progresses on his journey to self realization he is sooner or later to ask himself the question, Why?

This section of the journey is only too common as it is visible in world economies, war, abuse of power and even in the very visible lives of our royalty and movie stars.  This phenomenon explains why journalists focus on the bad news or the fallen lives of former heroes, pop stars and even Presidents of companies and countries.

The Fool becomes obsessed with that question why.  The search for an answer is not out of idle curiosity, but out of the deep need to find out why people and systems suffer and die.  This next stage is extremely important to go through completely to get to the truth or the Fool will end up in another replay of a similar drama, but likely worse.  The only cure is to look inward to understand the feelings and motivations that led to the situation in the first place.  What is the lesson that was there to be absorbed? In this phase the only thing that will satisfy is a period of solitude and reflection away from the relenting and frantic activity that society presents to us on a daily basis.  This is when the Fool can change from a human doing to a human being, if given the chance.  Sometimes, the Fool can seek a teacher for guidance or direction if he is stuck.  But it is inevitably his unique problem to solve and issue to resolve and he or she must become a Hermit for a time.

After a period of soul searching, the Fool figures it out.   A smart Fool can see how he has set up his own drama in all of its intricate design with patterns and cycles designed purely to bring out the lesson required from our most mysterious universe.  The experience seems perfect to awaken the necessary process of change to improve the perception of the Fool.  The perspective of the Fool has widened, the understanding deepened with the result of the sequence of events being a turning point of change.  After this period of assimilation, the Fool redirects his energy in a new way having a renewed sense of purpose and a broader and wiser plan.  The wheel of fate has turned to bring movement and action again.

Learning about cause and effect usually brings us Fools to these turning points in life.  When we take responsibility for our past actions and decisions, we can ensure a more steady course in the future.  If we correct our mistaken beliefs or understand what a more fitting lifestyle might be for us we may be able to take a course correction, large or small and move forward toward growth and insight.  That means taking responsibility for the decisions that got you into this boat.  Or, we can slip into the same old thinking and take the familiar and easy road to repeat the unconscious choices that got us there in the first place.  That familiar route is what closes personal growth and keeps us stuck in the same rut.  Moving onto a new path takes courage.

With no other choice but to continue searching, the Fool has learned that life is not so simple.  Humbled, he moves forward.  Feeling defeated, he relinquishes control of the circumstances and just follows where life takes him.  Amazingly, even though the Fool feels extremely vulnerable having given up control of life, things seem to continually move along and he feels good, free of the burden of driving his chariot.   Peace comes to the Fool.  Free at last.

Knowing that secret, that life is bigger than anyone dreamed before, the Fool begins to pare down and eliminate the bad habits and attitudes that caused him to swing back and forth on a seesaw of moods.  The more mature and stable Fool emerges from this transition to a new and higher state of being.

Balance is what the Fool requires after realizing that giving up all of life’s pleasures is not necessary either.  Tempering the extremes, balance and harmony ensues and with this equilibrium is a new appreciation of moderation in all things.  Finally, the Fool experiences true maturity and centers himself into a healthy set of attitudes bringing with it the well being that life should have.

But the road does not end here…..life is full of surprises.  The world has many messages.  The Fool’s journey continues.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep

to gain what he cannot lose.”

—Jim Elliot, author, 1927-1956

We all travel a road, a journey to self actualization and realization. These trips are long and complex requiring detours, deceptions, backups and restarts.  Very few people experience consistent and smooth progression.  Every person has his or her unique path but the milestones and growth experience may be universal.  The Tarot calls this the Fool’s Journey as if it is a metaphor for our journey through life.

Some of us are born with innate gifts in one area, but blind in another.  We can be an intellectual genius and an emotionally immature child.  Or, perhaps you have known people with immense wealth and power but who never know love.  There are others who wander lost, bewildered and afraid to journey.  These people are contrasted by some interesting souls who are creative, action-oriented, risk takers and confident.

The Fool’s Journey is not orderly and is sometimes so lengthy that it cannot be perceived on a daily basis with the truths that are offered only revealed in retrospect.  We skip lessons or refuse to learn the lesson and then fail to reach our potential.  When we are blind to the lessons by ignoring the signals to look inward we might have to repeat and repeat the same situation in a new way until we see what is going on and thus surrender our notions to the depth of the experience.

Many times we try to overcome the difficulties encountered on the path but fail repeatedly.  No matter what the lesson is and no matter what the pattern of discovery is that is what we are here to do and cannot avoid in order reach our true potential.  Even the most successful, powerful and visible people are here to do the same things that the ordinary mortals do–for some reason their journey is public and not private.  Not better, not worse.  Just different.

We start as the Fool, in the beginning.  Innocent and with faith, we are simple souls embarking on a journey expecting a positive outcome and unaware of any hardship or pain that he or she might encounter as we venture out to learn the lessons of the world.

After commiting to the path–a school, a marriage, a child, a lifestyle, a new city–our Fool encounters the great balancing forces of the universe–the forces of opposites.  We awaken to the conscious awareness given by the Magician that allows us to impact the world we have before us with concentration of will and our power.   We also encounter the creativity of the feminine and fertile ground of unrealized potential that springs forth new life.  Both are needed, as father and mother to create new activity.  Each pole, positive and negative, male and female, are needed for balance.  Without the negative we cannot see the light and without the light, we cannot create anew.  So, with trial and error, we forge forward into the new experience.

As this Fool gains more awareness of his environment he gets to understand the surroundings and explores and delights in the new situation.  Our Fool is meeting the Empress, representing the earthly mother who surrounds us with support and nurturing.  But as soon as we meet this experience, we also experience the Emperor who represents structure and authority.  So we feel some restriction but also security from patterns and lines of demarkation around the experience.  Another way of putting this is that we have boundaries and rules in each stage of life that regulate behavior in the society that we find ourselves that are somehow necessary for our well-being.   We find ourselves somewhere where there is a figure in authority who will enforce our behavior.  No matter what system you find yourself in, somehow there is a built-in check and balance system.  In this way, the Fool learns and understand his purpose and boundary conditions.

Eventually, this Fool strays into the larger world and educates himself about the world he finds himself in.  Taking in information about this world, he will develop a personal belief system.   The new Fool has been indoctrinated, educated, and trained in the practices of this society and has become a part of the culture.  The Fool cannot help but identify with his group — is this a family, religion, country, company, school–and this group give him a sense of belonging and enables that feeling of separation or aloneness to dissipate.  The Fool enjoys the experience of this group and conforms to the culture or must move to another group.

Most people yearn for intimacy at some point in their life.  And this urge is powerful.  Sometimes intimacy is confused with sexuality, which is also an extremely powerful urge.  The young Fool begins to look for relationship.  And these relationships are formed with other Fools with similar belief systems and values. The relationship, once found, helps to balance individuals who become a half of a symbiotic relationship.  These relationships are especially important with those who need the comfort of another to feel whole because they are not entirely self aware and constantly experience the loneliness from separation.

Just past this adolescent phase, the Fool steps into adulthood.  Feeling masterful, the adult Fool has a strong identity with his experience or group and through discipline and willpower, repeating what has worked well in the past he feels that he understands his environment.  The ego feels victorious.  We have the exuberance of a happy child.  This is what we went through when we had the stock market bubbles….unjustified success and the feeling of self satisfaction.  You have the assured confidence of a winner and the feeling that this will never end and that somehow you did something good to deserve applause. This is the ride up on the Chariot of life.

Eventually, this ride up at the top presents challenges.  Some challenges are darn hard.  Some cause bubbles to burst.  Some challenges are amazing serving the purpose of reversing the previous thinking that had been ingrained in our belief system.   We have to draw on our inner strength to go on despite amazing setbacks.  This can represent ill health, job or relationship losses, children who don’t turn out the way we thought they should.  In comes a whole new phase of life requiring new attributes of patience, tolerance, and stoicism.  A kinder and softer power prevails as intense feelings temper the exuberance of the previous phase.   It is in these times that we realize that we do not control the world.  There seems to be more to life than that. It is in times like this that people begin to believe in a higher power.

What next, what hardships to I have to overcome, why is this happening to me?  The Fool cries like Job did.

More in the next blog entry….the Fool’s Realization.

People are like stained-glass windows. 
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, 
but when the darkness sets in, 
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
…

—Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. 1926-2004

Life is a precious gift.

Not a minute of our time can be wasted with useless activities or negative habits.  When we are lost in our youth, time seems endless and many squander time away in endless circles of unproductive action.   Then, one day, we are older…time seems more precious.  The days do not seem so endless anymore.  Where did the time go?

Life is complicated.

People come and go, stages of life are thrust in front of us, new challenges await us to be digested and conquered. Every situation and person we meet teaches us more about life and our self.

Some people play at life as if they are a victim of their emotions.  These emotions are below the surface, boiling and directing the unconscious actions of the individual.  Not thinking, these individuals hurt with their words, take without giving, act as if they are more important than everyone else and are selfish, needy and greedy.  They are not aware that anyone else exists. Or they live in constant pain and suffering which does not allow them the ability to look outside of themselves.

With a mindful state of consciousness we can snap the chains of the past that keep us imprisoned.  We can begin to see that we are in the state of wakeful dreaming.  That we have created our own prison.  That we are fighting invisible demons.

And from mindfulness we can move to a state of right actions, beginning to see outside of ourself to come to the aid of others.   The path of truth requires that you keep your word.  Impeccability.  Right action. Kindness to others. No lying or stealing or cheating.  Become a dream maker working on behalf of other people, never a dream breaker.

You can take the inner path.  This is the path of true riches and gold.

You must want to transform.  You must get acquainted with your true self.  We are living in a conscious universe where every element is aware of itself. Discover and live out of your true will.

We can become an Ippisimus; a person most in touch with his true self, free from limitations and living in perfect balance with the manifest universe.  Integrate your consciousness–unconscious, subconscious, conscious and superconscious minds into one.  The Buddha claimed that he had total recall of his many lives when he reached the state of enlightenment by integrating his consciousness.  By bringing out the divine spark  of light in us we can unite it with our conscious self for a deeper and richer human experience.

The levels of the human mind and consciousness are not distinct, separate and isolated….the superconscious mind is a product of the unification of the unconscious and conscious mind of the person.  The route is directly through the unconscious because that is the largest element and where the most energy remains for our use, dormant.  Transformation comes when everyday consciousness becomes aware of what lies below and is able to utilize the energy  and give it form, direction and meaning.

How to we get to the path of the transformed personality.  We have to look at the mask that we have created with our ego.  We have to see that that mask is not who we are.  We have to re-define our self image and values.  We have to define our SELF for ourself.   Who am I?   One way to do this is to write a personal constitution.  And then, become the person you aspire to be.

It is extremely common for people to wonder about the meaning of life when they reach middle age.  When people are young they are primarily concerned with finding victory over the basics of life–school, achieving success, finding a partner.  But once a level of success has been reached, then, sometimes we wonder about the value of it.  Hopefully, taking stock–who am I underneath this image, these possessions?  Today, many younger people are already on the path and asking these questions.  They want a sense of meaning and an inner essence.  And more and more people find that the way to answer these questions is to look inside, deep within our self.

The light of the unconscious mind beckons us to go within for the answers under the cover of the conscious mind.  By finding this center, we can slowly gain access to and release the light by following a process of self discovery and self awareness.

Every breath we take is filled with life, energy.  By understanding that every breath is a precious gift, we can begin to appreciate what this life is all about.  As I said earlier, there is not a minute to waste.

“We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception.  The first are original thinkers in the double sense, and egoists in the noble meaning of the word.

It is from them only that the world learns wisdom.

For only the light that we have kindled in ourselves can illuminate others.”

—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher 1788-1860

Awareness is what a baby experiences when it takes a first breath.  Suddenly this child is rudely awakened from its state in the womb cognizant of a significant change in mental states and body processes.  Suddenly this child is self-aware.

Perception.  What is it?  Through certain faculties of observation such as sight, smell, touch and other physical sensations, we develop a capacity for comprehension and private thoughts which determine the differences between mind and matter.  We develop an image of our self and create that view as an illusion of a separate identity.  We form subjective ideas about this experience and record them.

We are taught by others, parents and caretakers, teachers, clergy about how the world is to be perceived.  We are given “the word” or language to relate our views.  We learn by doing.  Experimenting.  We are rewarded for choosing proper thinking and punished…for not.

We listen. We learn that  people are not always truthful with you, with themselves. Soon we are forming a framework that is unique to our personality and that we will function with for the better part of our life.  It can be a positive disposition or a negative one, depending on our nature and our early nurturing.

We see incredible diversity in life, in nature, in people.    We can get hurt by those who are supposed to love us or those who might be our friends in school.  The whole scene is amazing.  It can be overwhelming.  The beginnings of suffering starts early.  We begin the waking dream trying to understand what is going on around us.

George Gurdjieff (1877-1949) was a Greek-Armenian philospher who claimed that people do not perceive reality but live in a state of “waking sleep” but that it is possible for a man to wake up and experience life more fully.

The Sanskrit word for this waking sleep is Maya, meaning illusion.  Maya is the word used to describe our perception of the material world in which we live.

Fundamentally, these philosophies are pointing at the same thing:  that our mental abilities create nonphysical phenomena as a powerful view of reality.

Soon, we are old enough to choose whether to believe or not what someone says to you.  When you can begin to see the truth and to see people for what they really are, you can choose not to take anything personally.   You can short circuit the addiction to suffering that is set up and reinforced every day in life.

Of course, there a definite purpose to suffering. Suffering awakens consciousness.  It is normal for us to suffer, to live in fear and to create and recreate emotional drama.  Throughout the world we see this suffering en masse–wars, violence, abuse, injustice, anger, addictions and revenge.  And these situations create personal crisis.  These crises are designed for our personal evolution and to free us from past actions or erroneous thinking.

The purpose of this life is to pursue happiness and joy.  This is possible. It requires vigilance and attention to your immutable nucleus in your person.  But getting there requires us to surface and dissolve the negative emotions that get in the way of pure joy.

Our job is to manage our emotions, not lose control of them.  Gain control of fear.   These negative emotions represent a defilement of your own consciousness and lead to unnecessary anxiety.  Simply stop feeding these emotions.  Stop thinking about the past. Negativity will die of starvation when you learn to substitute a positive outlook and outcome as a considered expectation.  By raising your awareness of how and what you are thinking,  you can surface and dissolve those old, nasty belief systems that are planted like weeds in your garden.

We need to let go of the judge inside.  That judge is holding you back by incessant negative criticism–”I am not good enough, I am not smart enough, I can’t do it”….etc…  By becoming aware of how this inner critic works and how it affects your emotions you can conquer this judge and eliminate the inferior impulses and preoccupations that sap energy and increase alienation.

Silence will help.  Turn off the cell phone. Turn off the TV.  Turn off the radio.  Listen.  You might even find that the beliefs that are controlling the mind are the cause of needless suffering because you might realize that they are coming from your mind and are not real.  You can say STOP any time you want.  Catch the dream that you are living in the act.

Do your best.  Makes us happy.  Because you love it.  You can become an artist and paint a masterpiece of your life by the choices that you make.  You can choose to be aware.  Increased awareness can allow an awakening of dormant faculties that are capable of expanding the mind and overall quality of life.

You can choose to transform any negative energy into positive.  You can become free from the negative emotion that entraps the mind.  You must become aware of the fog that comes over us when we are entrapped by this emotion.   It can debilitate and harm.

Learn from mistakes. Practice.  There are many strong and long held beliefs that live in our mind that can be difficult to overcome. These beliefs took a long time to take root, and they may take time and patience to displace.  But it is possible.  And it is worth the effort.

Working at understanding the workings of the mind takes belief in yourself.  Practice at mindfulness improves awareness.  If you are not aware, you cannot change.

Grow your awareness by letting go of the past.  Just forgive any hurt, let go of anger, and live in the present moment, right here and now. By letting go of the past, you can fully experience the here and now–notice more, enjoy more, love more.  You can awaken from the dream and see what is real.

“We are what we think

All that we are arises with our thoughts

With our thoughts we make the world.”

—Gautama Siddhartha, founder of Buddhism, 563-483 BCE

The quality and quantity of work you produce is dependent on your ability to concentrate.  Functioning at peak performance requires self nurturing so that you can excel at highly creative activities and encourage breakthrough thinking.

There are different types of concentration:

• Focused: The ability to respond to visual, auditory or tactile stimuli.
• Sustained: The ability to maintain a consistent response in continuous and repetitive activity.
• Selective: The capacity to maintain focus with distracting or competing activity.
• Alternating: Mental flexibility that allows a shift of focus to move between tasks.
• Divided: The ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks.

Thought is formed by consciousness.  Thoughts just arise; they seem to form and carry on waves through the zero point field.  Some people can receive ideas and images from others.  It is not even clear if we know what we originate or what we pick up.  This does seem to explain how inventions and ideas travel.  We are like a biological radio receiver and transmitter.

Thought is the product of mental activity. The capacity to reason or imagine forms our intellect. The intellect manifests itself with intellectual capacity, creativity or artistic ability, leadership and academic excellence. The things that we think about form our personal depth.  To pursue the intellect is to neglect to form inferior mental images that drag us down.  For that which one thinks is a body of thought.

Using the intellect enables us to use our intelligence quotient to conceive of, to imagine, to understand situations or solve problems. When we are inspired by the fire of creativity we can expect new ideas or bring things into being by mental imagination - like an invention.

It starts with intention.  With purity of purpose.  The belief or opinion that we can get it done.  Then, through a type of mental visualization. mental images or visual pictures ideas spring forth.  With reason, concentration and intelligence we create our world.

Generally, one cannot get outside of our own mental box or intellectual framework.  We have a certain temperament, attitude and aptitude.  A negative outlook cannot help when one is attempting to learn new frameworks, create scientific hypothesis or solve world problems.

The very act or process of thinking or mental activity can weary us when the reasoning is weak or the thinking becomes circular, as in worry.  Worry is a negative and repetitive system of thought that serves no purpose. It produces anxiety and a host of problems.  Worry is the opposite of concentration. It produces nothing productive.

By keeping our thought processes active and clean of degeneration from the shadow or lower self (anger, jealousy, greed and selfish desires) the mind is better able to concentrate on higher principals and gain clarity.  Cleaning the mind from darkness enables us to move to a higher level.  I believe that we can increase our intelligence and creativity this way.

Highly intelligent individuals learn more quickly, deeply, and broadly than their peers. They tend to demonstrate high reasoning ability, memory, creativity, curiosity, a large vocabulary, and remember details. They often can master concepts quickly.  Some people exhibit intelligence in one area but can be lagging in others.  The ability is frequently not evenly distributed throughout all intellectual sphere.

Extremely high intelligence may become noticeable in individuals at different points of development. While early development often comes with the gifted, it is not a determinant. It is well-documented that Albert Einstein did not talk until he was more than 2 years old.  Some gifted individuals experience heightened sensory awareness and may seem overly sensitive to sight, sound, smell and touch. They may be unable to concentrate because of the distraction of the sound of a clock or another small disturbance. Hypersensitivity to external stimuli can cause some to avoid crowded environments.

Other highly intelligent people, however, are able to tune out any unwanted distractions as they focus on a task or on their own thoughts, and seem to seek and thrive on being in the midst of lots of activity and stimulation.

Meditation is an exercise designed to prevent your mind from thinking in a natural way by relaxing the body and senses. Meditation and contemplation place you deep in pure perception and awareness.  You can separate your “self” or the thinker from the thoughts going by.  Just noticing.  Just not thinking so much.

All this goes to just say that a mind is a terrible thing to waste and that life has so much to offer to those who can participate in it fully.  Let a little more light in.  Here are some suggestions:

10 Ways to Focus Your Mind

1. Get adequate sleep
2. Eat healthy food and exercise regularly
3. Eliminate distractions
4. Clear your mind of everything
5. Focus on your goal
6. Free your mind of negative or distorted viewpoints
7. Look at problems in different ways
8. Think about the opposite of your problem
9. Look for analogies
10. Take Breaks

It is only through your conscious mind that you can reach the subconscious.  Your conscious mind is the porter at the door, the watchman at the gate.  It is to the conscious mind that the subconscious looks for all its impressions.

—Robert Collier, American Author, 1885-1950

The main purpose of the subconscious mind is to preserve the well-being of the individual.  It supervises the body–breathing, circulation, digestion, muscles and the like.  It keeps track of the wellspring of thoughts that enter our consciousness as a storehouse of knowledge.

So, images of events in our lives are stored here.  Difficult situations that we may have faced are here, hidden from view. Knowing our self means looking inside to free and eliminate the pain that may linger, no matter how hidden, so that thought forms and emotions do not surface from the lower self to poison life and loved ones.

Suppression of emotions tends to create a mask of the real self.  This mask creates self-deception as this false layer convinces the person to believe in his / purity of motive.  The actual root of the condition or thought pattern actually sinks into the subconscious mind where it ferments and grows to create ugly forms that cannot be easily eliminated because the person is basicly unaware of them.  Facing your shortcomings is the way to go since avoidance is the greatest mistake we can make yielding more trouble and conflict.

Searching for the truth within takes time.  Meditation or therapy are both perfect for this purpose.  Purification of the lower self can bring truth and enlightenment.  A new spark of life is born as the mind can focus its power of concentration on external activities rather than dwelling on the safety of self.

Confidence gets a boost as the power of concentration is activated.  Things that were once harder to do become effortless.  Higher level thinking comes into play.

When the subconscious mind is free of distraction, they say it can be influenced by auto-suggestion.  The conscious mind merely needs to root an idea in the subconscious mind through repetition of thought.   We entertain a belief and then the belief enters our subconscious mind.

We can tune our mind with constructive thinking and visualization.  And we can bring others into this happy habit to create a result that supports a group.   This is how leaders operate.

The subconscious mind needs to be tended like a garden.  Meticulous care and feeding will result in a cleaner, purer spirit within.  Attending to thoughts that cultivate the mind with health, music, art, science, supporting people with progress will produce a connected, intelligent and responsible individual.  Someone like this is the type of person who everyone wants to know.

If the doors of perception were cleansed, man would see everything as it is —infinite.

—William Blake

Superconsciousness exists and all of us experience it.

It is that great state of expanded mind that everyone has glimpsed from time to time.  Some people have experiences so powerful that they wish to spend more time achieving that transcendental state more often.  With time, practice, help and meditation perhaps they can.  But not all of us can live on a mountaintop in Tibet with a master.

Looking at many of the great thinkers and minds in both the eastern and western traditions, it appears that most attribute their genius to inspiration found when the mind goes to a place of expanded awareness in nature or in silence.  Genius comes from this place of infinite mind within each us.

I plan to offer many examples of great minds from various arts and sciences in this blog over time with the quotes attributing their brilliance to a source beyond their normal perception.  There are many, many examples.

By cultivating the mind, that is, clearing it of thoughts and emotion, it can be re-trained away from the wandering thoughts that is its usual fodder.  The ego must disengage control.  There is still.  Serenity.  Calm.  It is during these experiential moments that the superconscious kicks in.  And, in these moments, problems causing turmoil that have been plaguing the mind can be suddenly solved in an instant of inspiration.

Everyone gets these moments.  Everyone. The question remains what we do with the moment.  Do we recognize what we have?  Do we act?  Often that old ego gets back into the act and explains away what we have been given and the inspired thought is just filed away.

The brain is merely an interpretive organ of consciousness.  Our self is in charge of both the brain and the mind.  I find it completely plausible that scientists say that most people are only employing about 4% of our brain capacity.

Superconsciousness is a power laying dormant for all of us to use actively on a daily basis.  Pulling on the knowledge from our higher self, superconsciousness can bring us knowledge, pure perception, awareness of fine detail, total recall, intuition, telepathy and much more.

So, use your innate skills to create an infinite view of reality.  With your enthusiasm and curiosity you can take yourself anywhere.  This ability is not limited. You can express your gifts by utilizing these powers out of pure desire.   Vision, concentration, clarity.  Then listen.  Innovate.  Contribute.  That is all.

Then, harnessing the power of your insight, you will be free to take your mind and your will to create any place you wish to go.

The area of the unconscious is enormous and always continuous, while the area of consciousness is a restricted field of momentary vision.

—Carl Jung

We witness the spectrum of consciousness everyday in today’s society.    From the bums on the street to the avatar in the ashram, consciousness is what we strive to improve over our lifetime.    The universe itself is considered a form of consciousness unfolding.  The state of being aware, utilizing faculties such as reasoning, sight or hearing constitutes awareness.

The baby is born into a world of pure awareness, and then whack! the doctor smacks him on the bottom and he moves from awareness to perception–the five senses are born.  It seems a little rough to me, but these doctors must believe that smack is necessary.

Over the course of a lifetime, a successful child goes through a gradual awakening into a deeper awareness of all aspects of life.  After gaining mastery over the physical, a growing person will also master his mental powers, emotional self and then be able to make a contribution to society as he or she taps into the universal to help society or to create something new.

One way of looking at our consciousness is that it is a spectrum with ascending levels of mastery.  New insight and skills appear on this journey of mastery enabling us to achieve more outer results in the world with increased inner peace.

The unconscious mind is asleep.  Like a waking sleep, people can live here when traumatized from external pain or self inflicted anxieties.  The unconscious person is not always aware of what they are saying or thinking.  The repressed emotion that causes unconscious behavior is hidden so deeply that it is often out of reach without professional help.  When working with the prevailing unconscious, the mind is dull, stupid and lazy and the people are suffering from inertia.  It is here that the mind is easily misled and caught in degrading states of anger, greed, lust, jealousy, and hate.  Most people with addictions are working from the unconscious need to cover up the pain suffered from inferior emotions connected here.  In this state, people are suffering and alienated from the interconnectedness of functioning society.  The unconscious mind has taken over in “wandering thoughts”, repeated meandering through the past and the future replaying scenarios out of personal habit.  The unconscious person is in a world of his/her own making not aware and disconnected from self.  Dormant faculties are awaiting to be wakened from this dream.

Subconscious mind power performs all of the background activities that we need to perform.   It is formed from the aggregate of our past experiences.  Our subconscious mind is what routinely repeats habitual behavior like a reflex action.  What we have experienced in the past is summed up with impressions in thinking, feeling and doing that influences our character and enables us to respond to certain stimulus with predictable tendencies.  Habitual thoughts and feeling create belief systems.  Beliefs live with the subconscious mind and create the reality that forms the basis of our character.   By knowing ourselves and clearing out some of the debris of unwanted impressions from unhealthy past experiences, we can move out of unnecessary mental patterns that keep us stuck.

Conscious mental activity requires training.  From learning to tie our shoes to vocational, arts and sciences, moral and secular education, the human mind has an infinite capacity to learn new things.  Consciousness is becoming aware of the observer in ourself who is cognizant of what is going on internally in thought and feeling.  As a fully engaged activity of the mind, this observer is able to steadily integrate information taken in, synthesize it and increase our awareness and understanding.  Amazingly aware, this faculty garners knowledge and perceptions and takes account of the presence of any object, person, state or sensation and decides how to view it.    Training the mind often takes a mentor to get over the most difficult learning, as we seem to have built in stumbling blocks.  But with patience, alertness, willpower. calmness and fearlessness we can grow in our capacity to empower our self.

Higher consciousness is that state that so many seek and so few find.  Mental calmness under all circumstances is necessary to enter this state.  Many use meditation to cleanse the mind of its difficulties and concerns.  One has to take control of the mind, monitor its thinking and dissolve the emotional baggage that is carried along.  But with patience and forbearance, with deliberate efforts to forever remove fear, clearing blame and misfortune and replacing negative emotions with forgiveness…through this method a path is forged to the higher self.