Life 2.0

Beware false prophets

Most people stumble across the truth at some time in their lives. Most jump up, brush themselves off and hurry about their business as if nothing had happened." -- Sir Winston Churchill

…and most of us that do not hurry-away look for someone to help us stabalise that experience. It’s as though we can’t quite accept that the source of the insight and inspiration we experienced came from within us… which of course, would mean that what we have been looking for is US, perfect already. And we couldn’t possibly have that now, could we?

So in that disbelief we go looking for a ‘teacher’ -- other than the one we just discovered – to help us recapture the experience that for one minute seemed so real but now increasingly remote.

We buy his books and CD’s and watch his videos… all the while refusing to look at the truth of who it is that is doing the seeking – the reality hidden behind our self-belief. And when this teacher doesn’t deliver, we go find another. In this way we continue to hide from our Self by acting-out being lost.

Ultimately, it’s insight that unravels complexity and brings doubt to clarity. And -- although life speaks to us in many different ways -- the insight that reveals what is, arises from within. Accepting that the means and the end are One, we can dispense with false prophets. We don’t have to go looking for Love when that is the place we are coming from.

Cartoon credit: http://www.holymolecartoon.com/store.html

Announcements:  
I have started using the Google+ (the social networking site) for my shorter writing and musings.  If you'd like to join me there I'd be delighted.  You can find me here =>  http://gplus.to/swiftnick .  

Tiny Interventions

This little experiment by Improv Everywhere where they place a wooden lectern with the sign ‘say something nice’ in public spaces around New York, reminds me how small interventions can have such profound effects.

(video link here)

I get the feeling that when our 'greatest minds' finally unravel the mysteries of life  -- the strangeness of the observer effect in quantum mechanics and all that -- we'll be faced with the shocking truth that we stand at cause in our life, with the Universe as effect;  that perception is projection, not fact; that who really are is this changeless presence of awareness in which all that can be observed, and that is subject to change, appears;  that who-we-are is the answer we have been looking for.

Maybe it’s only then that it will dawn on our waking minds that we are the Artist – the script writer -- in the story of our life, and the Universe not a mystery to be solved or problem to be fixed, but the pristine canvas on which we are free to express whatever we choose – that this is simply our playground and our classroom.

The thing is, we don't have to wait for that day to learn just how influential we are.  We can choose now to witness how seemingly tiny loving interventions fan out like ripples on a lake, bringing untold release in places we would never have imagined.  As Gandhi said, "The pure love of one soul can offset the hatred of millions."

Miracles are expressions of love, but they may not always have observable effects.  A miracle is never lost.  It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware…. ACIM

But first, we must learn not be dismayed by appearances.  We have to recognise that fear, in whatever form it appears or however it is expressed, is nothing more that the perception of absence of Love.  Recognising this allows us to hold a place of peace so we hear the reality of the call being made, and respond naturally in kind. 

Miracles honour you because you are lovable.  They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you.  They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares.  By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity…. ACIM

Right where we stand we have the opportunity to heal the world.  It is only the ego’s voice that protests we are not ready.

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Writing Lessons

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell,
blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?”.. Roger Waters

It's 15 months since I last wrote here.  I found myself trying to express the feeling and meaning of what I wanted to say, not just the idea... and losing touch with how to do that.  I could easily imagine someone writing in the comments, "So you think you can tell Heaven from hell, blue skies from pain?"

Better, I thought, to shut up until I found my way. 

New Skills

I was told that good writing is mostly rewriting -- "...just write a shitty first draft to start with.  Then pare away the inessential as you tidy it up into something presentable."  This sounds like good advice, but doesn't feel quite right to me.  What's wrong with just saying it how you find it, without correction or second guessing?  Noam Chomsky put it like this, "Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune."   I know where he was coming from. 

But still, there has to be a better way.  This video from the good people at the R.S.A. reminds me of this need for something similar, in the context to our present situation:

We are fairly well versed at scientific analysis, critical thinking and logical writing, but how do you communicate in a way that creates a space for something fundamentally new?  How do we interact in a way that not just expands our bubble, but can burst it?   However you do that, it's a skill I'd like to learn.

Engagement

One thing I have been learning is that it's only in coming together that we begin to understand just how creative and wise we really are.  In holding on to our own space, we eventually wind up pretty stupid and miserable. [1]

I'm learning that the limitations we see around our creativity and sphere of influence only get lifted as we allow ourselves to meet in the little ‘gap’ that we normally hold between us... as it's only by consciously choosing to accept what our judgments have previously rejected, that we get to witness that the boundaries that create the sense of our being 'a separate part of life' exist solely in our mind. 

Our present belief system functions to support our ‘need’ to be separate.  We ‘see’ what we want to see, then believe what we ‘see’.  Perception is projection, not fact.[2]  So the question is, do we want to be right or to be happy?  Do we want to see that we are powerful and responsible, or would we rather suffer as ‘a victim’ of Universe we prefer to see apart from us?

I have long resisted taking this on board, having associated defences with strength, and defencelessness with being vulnerable.  Yet this does not stand up to testing.  The instant we're willing to let go of our own agenda and stand totally defenceless with one another, we naturally respond in a way that is truly helpful to the unknown as it arises.  Engaging with life defencelessly and indiscriminately [3] like this, I trance-end the 'me' that suffers and wake-up to the Self we really are.

Fun

The other thing I'm (slowly) learning is how simple this can be.

In fact, it's only difficult to the extent that I confuse wilfulness and willingness.  Wilfulness is a determination to do something.  Willingness is wilfulness' opposite:  an eager compliance. 

To illustrate, have you ever watched a monkey carry it's young? 

If you have, you'll know that it doesn't!  The baby has to cling on for dear life. 

You can see the terror in the young ones eyes when its mother swings from branch to branch high in the trees.  They are scared of falling and getting injured.  And sometimes they do.

Now, by way of contrast, watch how a lioness carries her young.  The cub does nothing.

Actually that's not quite true:  The cub chooses to relax, do nothing and enjoy the ride.  It is happy to go wherever it's mother takes it.  It knows it is perfectly safe because it is  willing to leave everything to it's mother.

And help is always at hand..

Even when the cub wonders off and gets into difficulties, it only has to call... and it knows it will be safe again.  Where there is no fear, it's all fun. 

A bit corny eh!  But you get the idea. ;)

Agendaless-ness (that isn't a word is it!) is the bridge between these two ways of being.  And the way I let go of 'my agenda' is trusting that our real Self knows what is needed for our well being far better than the thinking, rational mind could ever do, in any situation. 

But following our inner Guide is about far more than what to do in certain circumstances.  It is learning to consistently feel the Presence connecting us to every living thing.  To begin to feel the harmony and peace that is inherent in the expression of our Wholeness; to experience a state of mind we have almost forgotten.  This is how we communicate on the truest level wherever we direct our attention with this awareness, and this is in no way bounded by our concepts of time and space.

A new beginning

I've come around to seeing that the words are never the problem.  When I focus on words I give them an importance they don’t have, and forget that it’s in coming together that things get really interesting.  And so this is the new direction for this blog.  Whatever words come, can serve that.  They are secondary now, and that suits me fine.  :)

If anyone still listening here after all these months, thank you for being so patient.
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Footnotes:

[1]...There are many ancient stories that appear to contradict this and point towards a period of retreat to 'find yourself'.  I’m sure that’s good and useful, but ultimately we don’t really get to know what we are capable of, and remember our true nature, until we allow that to be expressed.  It’s in returning, rather than retreating, that we discover that 'Joy', 'Self expression' and 'Service', are pretty much all one and the same thing.

[2]... I’ll post about this is some depth, soon.

[3]... I say 'indiscriminately' here because this principle appears to operate in a similar way to the Theory of Constraints.  -- I cannot resist one part of this Flow without resisting all of it.  When I hold back from one person I hold back from everyone.  Maybe it's because this Flow knows no part as separate from itself.  :)   If this is true, then the unavoidable conclusion is that those that are most helpful to our growth and Self realisation are the ones we think of and meet who we are most willing to disengage from.
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A Return to Wisdom

There's something refreshing about feeling free to speak the truth as we see it, don’t you think? 

The French have a word for this - 'témoignage', which means being willing to speak openly about what we see in front of us.  As far as I'm aware, there's no English equivalent. The universities in Ancient Greece were very much into this.  If you'd discovered something cool you could just come and tell.  It wasn't so much about recognition or status, as sharing.

But there's another, perhaps less obvious, benefit in being present and open.  We discover a natural wisdom and ability to respond perfectly to whatever arises.  Almost childlike, we sense, feel and act without any of the judgments or friction that accumulate as we grow up.

This inner knowing doesn't announce itself or insist.  The mind doesn't know, 'Is this the right way?',  'Is this what is best?',  'Is this what I want to do?'  That's mind stuff.  But when we accept the fact that intellect can never really know, we become aware of this feeling -- an inner movement... and where it leans, we can go.  But when our mind asks, 'do I know this is the right way?' the answer is always no.  In fact, 'not knowing' is the way... a way that brings with it an incredible freedom and peace of mind from letting go of the burden of ever needing to know again.

This is wisdom.  And yet it doesn't come as a formula, you can't learn about from or set of bullet points, you don't gain it from experience and it's not something that some old guru can pass on to us at a retreat.  It's something that pre-exists and is wholly formed in all of us.  It is something we've had all along, closer than our next breath.  We've just been too busy preening our self image, defending against an imagined past or planning for a better future, to notice.

There's absolutely nothing needed to start having this inner wisdom move us right now -- by stepping back and instead of moving, allowing ourselves to be moved instead.  And if our mind asks, 'Is this the right feeling?' there will be no answer.  Our mind never knows.. but inside we do, because as we move the right way we feel a congruity and peace.  This is direct knowing.  Anticipation, or any other thought process, plays no part at all in this.

And as we do, what arises on the 'inside' and what appears as 'outside' start to move in harmony as the distinction we have made between the two begins to fade.  What we begin to see reflects the peace and harmony of our true nature as opposed to conflicts and confusion in mind. 

It seems that the movement of life is always towards this.  One way or another life finds a way to prise our fingers away from clinging to littleness, which is what we do when we try to control our little corner of the Universe.  There is no joy in clinging.  Our safety, our happiness and our influence lie in the flow of Life itself.  It is this same inner wisdom that flows through us and moves us when we let it.  We are not apart from it all.  It is no coincidence that when people recall the moments of real flow in their life, they report everything working to perfection, with what's needed arriving at exactly the right moment and doors opening where previously there were no doors at all.

But nevertheless, before we commit to live true to this inner truth in us -- in Flow, the question comes, 'How could we possibly let go of conscious control of our lives?' and perhaps also, 'How would we organise a team or build any successful enterprise without our time tested control strategies?'

To let go of our need to control seems crazy, doesn't it?  Wouldn't chaos reign?

The opposite of Control...

is not Chaos…

..it is Closeness

When we let go of our need to control we are free to receive others just as they are.

When we are connected information  flows  freely.  Without resistance everything  flows  perfectly.

Do you see the irony?  Controls act as resistance... and it resistance that causes the problems that we seek to control!

When you think about it, using plans to managing anything is wishful thinking at best.  Who in their right mind could possibly say they could predict all that was to happen and know the effect of their decision on everyone that may happen to be affected?

A future focused, control/goal orientation is a sorry substitute for the clarity, the wisdom and joy of being free to let our attention be openly present and respond 'as we feel' to what is here in front of us.  In an open, self-aware environment the gap between us disappears and we all become wise.  We become too close for answers not to flow to where they are needed and too connected for our influence not to flow everywhere. 

By allowing ourselves to come together in present trust -- to Flow, opens up our awareness.  In that awareness if there are plans needed they become obvious, without the need to plan.  And if there's any doubts, we can ask each other:  'What is it right now that appears to stand before us as an obstacle?'  An open question with a present focus is never left unanswered.  In our willingness to come together and fully experience whatever appears to stand in our way, insight reveals both it's nature and it's cause, and in seeing this it is done.  This is wisdom.

As the challenges of our world appear more complex and daunting there's an inexorable push towards better education, more sophisticated management techniques, more 'intelligent' control systems, more commitment to goals and best practices.  But one thing we never do is question the nature of the complexity we are attempting to respond to.  Why should it all be so difficult?  We take as given that the world is a complex place and yet the great discoveries in science and other disciplines, are invariably beautiful in their simplicity.  Once discovered they seem too obvious, and make everyone appear foolish for not having discovered them before.  As Einstein said, "If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough.”

But deep down we already know this.  When we recognise something as true it doesn't come to us via a thought process, but as an experiential one -- we feel it as a sudden 'AHA'.  And then, surprised at the simplicity of it, we are amazed that it was never known before.  We've all experienced this, usually whilst engaged in an activity that involves 'feeling' as opposed to thinking -- such as shaving or putting on our make-up, or both!

Just take a moment to consider what a strange idea it is that the nature of reality should be hard to see!  And yet the 'greatest minds' among us struggle with this.  You would imagine that to simply see the nature of 'what is' would be, by definition, ease itself.  If reality appears complex, with struggle being the norm, doesn't that suggest that the lens through which we see it might actually be causing the distortion?

By leaving the appearance of complexity unexamined, the connection between the 'way we see' and 'what we see' goes overlooked... and then the world of science and academia are left attempting to see things not as they are,  but as a pathologists would -- by looking at each part and trying to figure out its relationship to the rest.  But this body is already dead… by taking ourselves out of the picture there is no Life left to see and understand.  

This is not wisdom, it is madness.  It leaves us having to derive a multitude of rules, driven by our most pressing problems, to operate in a complex and precarious world based on our latest 'understanding'... and expecting scientific or philosophical answers to our problems, where in fact the answers are so simple and self-evident.  And yet it never occurs to us once to question the way we look.  Reason surely tells us that the starting point of any investigation ought to be to know our own relationship with the world. 

Whereas, deep down, we know the simple answers, we're brought up to believe it must be more complicated than it is.  Our mind rejects as too naive, the notion that the answers could lie in simply choosing to be open to fully experience what is here in front of us and allow our own inner guidance to show us what is true and how to flow with that. 

All it takes is a little courage... and 'courage' only because it flies in the face of all our societal conditioning.  We have learned to prize 'good' judgment and be wary of being open; and we have been brought up to be ashamed of ignorance and to accumulate knowledge.  But what's called for here is the exact opposite -- to embrace 'not knowing'. 

There's an inexplicably beauty in allowing ourselves to be guided, because as we step back the light in us steps forward and encompasses the world.

This requires no reasoning, no calculation, no learning, no practice or discussion... no thinking or activity of any kind.  Just a radical honesty -- a willingness to live in non-resistance to what is here in each moment and be true to truth as it appears to us, instead of what we believe it to be.  Témoignage, in fact.
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Footnote:  This post is an adaptation of an article I’ve written by way of introduction to a talk I’m giving in a couple of weeks at the Summer School for the Welsh Government.  All being well, as part of this talk we’ll take a deep dive into seeing and understanding this connection between ‘the way we see' and 'what we see'.  The idea behind this is that with awareness comes choice, and with choice freedom. :)
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With that Moon Language

Today I came across a translation of a poem by  Haziz on Jen Lemen's blog, called  ‘With that moon language’

Admit something:

Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."

Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise someone would call the cops.

Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye

that is always saying,

with that sweet moon language,

what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?

 
Oh.. to be a pen in God’s hand, eh!
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When I let this life be as it is..

When I let this life be as it is
instead of imposing my agenda,
what could there be to grieve for?

Believing in a world beyond my mind
fearful eyes reported what I imagined I would find
but I found no life, no love, no intelligence in matter.

So turning to this tug of Love in me (the one that calls us to be free)
to help me let this mask of grievance go
and reveal what the intellect and eyes don't know,
a long forgotten memory came back to me.

As I stood before you 
and the fog began to clear
a loving Presence stood shining here
Surprise!  It was our own Self, in answer to our fear.

And then, without a care
I saw this freedom rise up everywhere.
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A Holy Communion

Have you every considered why we experience life so differently?

Some 'thing' exists for us when we draw a line around it in our mind.  By carving out a boundary everything on the inside becomes 'that' and everything on the outside 'not that'.

But these distinctions are not made at random.  There can be no distinction without motive, and there can be no motive unless contents are seen to differ in value.  For example, when we look at something as a problem we draw a distinction around something of a lesser value to us.  Similarly, when we set a goal we cleave a space in mind that we believe has greater value.

Sensation:  You notice a colourful blob.   Perception:  You recognise a car.   Cognition:  It is your car.   Judgement:  It is your car and some bastard is driving away with it.

Our intentions determine our experiences because our intentions determine what distinctions we make.  So... what we think  we see is reality, but what we really  see is what we want to see.  Perception is projection, not fact.

And so, living in these our 'private worlds', communication has come to be a mediation between the different meanings that we've attached to things.  

But there is another way of communicating that I touched on in the last post.  It is possible to speak from an on open, choiceless space, and allow truth to inform our words.  And when we do, the words we speak draw us away from the complex world of perceptions into the realm of Reality itself.

Communication takes place in the world of form -- between physically 'detached entities', differentiated as we first described.  And so, in some way or another, all forms of communication can be sensed and explained on the physical level.  For example, a sound or wireless wave can be detected by a receptor and then decoded into a form that is recognisably. 

But the thing is, without at least some level of communion between those that are communicating, there can be no real communication at all... because what reaches the other end doesn't get understood.  You can see this in a gang of youths -- one syllable can express what it would take a whole book for an outsider to comprehend.  The same in a tight knit workgroup too. 

Communication is secondary to communion.  In fact, there appears to be a fundamental law at work here:  The greater the communion between us, the less the need for physical communication and the more that gets communicated. 

Conversation begins before it starts, continues after it ends and doesn't always involve words.”... Christie Diamond  [via Chris Corrigan ]

Communion takes place in this Presence of awareness in which all form appears, and is time and space agnostic.  Have you noticed how it's possible to have as close a rapport with a writer or commenter of a blog post written in a different time-space than the guy sat next to us on the bus?

And this isn't just a human phenomena.  As a kid, it fascinated me how a flock of birds could fly every year in perfect formation, over thousand of miles, to some unseen destination with no apparent means of communicating.  I felt the same way again when I learnt to dive, and witnessed a shoal of hundreds of fish change direction in the same instant and in perfect unison.

The natural world doesn't so much communicate as commune. 

Those of us with pets have surely noticed this.  A ‘meouw’ could mean a thousand things but when my cat 'meouws' I know exactly what it means.  If I can't be bothered to get up and give it the fish or open the door or pet it.... by pretending I don't know what this  ‘meouw’ means, then it knows I'm being awkward and makes damn well sure that I know that it knows too. ;)

As far as I can tell, we all have this ability to commune in equal measure.  It seems stunted only by our need to exercise some measure of control.  From Wikipedia: “Control is the attempt to impose excessive predictability and direction on others and events, often associated with lack of trust and insecurity.”  Sounds true enough, but lack of trust and insecurity are symptoms, not primary causes.  Fear is at the root of it.

But as we discussed earlier, what we fear is not reality but the reflection of our own imaginings... and so there's a way to undo that.

The more open we are, the more we understand.
The more we understand, the less we fear.
The less we fear, the more we are aware of our shared Presence
… because fear, in all it's many forms, is just the veil within our mind that blocks this awareness.

In 'How to Save the World'  we looked at how fear is never justified because we always have the ability, in any situation, to choose to look beyond perception to see what's real -- to choose Peace instead.  But this cannot be known on our own, because the idea of  'alone'  is the very denial of Peace. 

As described at the start of this post, the distinction I make called 'me' only appears real to the extent that I separate it from everything on the 'outside' of it's imagined boundary.  Our Self doesn't stop at the bodies limits and does not have the body’s limitations.  Our/Life's/Love's purpose is to know this -- to heal our unfounded sense of separation and resulting fear.

To commune with anyone is to let this idea of separateness go and prove, beyond any of shadow of doubt, that what is real is forever untouched by any of our dark imaginings.
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Related article:  Blogging's Hidden Jewel

Credits:  The still life painting is called 'Eucharist' by Chris Peters.

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Namaste :)

My eldest daughter, Jodie, called from San Francisco yesterday... on the last leg of her 15 month round the world adventure.  Although warned not to go alone after dark, they did anyway and ending up having a great time eating late at a place where no-one spoke English, in the Mission district / Mexican quarter.

As she told me the tale, she reminded me of what I love about travelling to different places.  When you don't know the language or culture you have to get out of your head and pay attention -- become present and aware, and communicate on a much more fundamental level.  And when we do that we come deliciously alive, as do those around us.

Of course, we don't have  to travel to foreign parts to do this.  It's just that we're normally too engrossed in our agenda to notice what's real.

We think of dreaming as something that happens during the night, but there's a kind that happens in the daytime too.  Each morning just before we open our eyes, there's a moment of pure Beingness -- an instant that's free of our beliefs, of the ideas and problems that drive us, and free of our past too.  All this gets recalled in the next few moments and then, on top of that, we layer all the 'shoulds' and 'coulds' and wishes for the day.  It happens so quickly and so automatically we're rarely aware of it happening so, in effect, this dream world within our head is the only 'reality' we know.  Each day being  just more of the same.

The thing is, in dreams we enter a world that is entirely our own.  And narrative is the map we need to bridge these separate worlds.  But the map is not the territory… and in a place where the words are meaningless our 'map' has effectively gone.  We are forced to raise our eyes, and in doing so we see what's real.  To do this is always a joy.  So often in the past I’ve been too clever, too taken up with my own busyness or self-importance to see this.  Silly me. 

There seems to be a perpetual anxiety that comes with living in our 'own world'.  It's one we've learnt to hide well but you still see it in people's eyes.  Except perhaps in tiny children.  Before the accumulation of words and concepts in their mind, children look with a thoughtless, open Awareness.  You see it in their smile -- what shines through is a pure joy of Being.

But this innocence is never lost.  There's a way of meeting someone that changes everything.

A smile from the heart knows no language, yet it communicates perfectly... and in doing so demonstrates quite clearly that the gap we think exists between us does not exist.  It can unveil what we've kept hidden and leave both of us shining brighter.

There a word for this that exists in the ancient Sanskrit language but not (as far as I am aware) in any other:  Namaste.  It means 'the light in me acknowledges the light in you', or something like that.

I honour the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells -- the place in you which is only love, truth, light & peace.  When you are in that place in you & I am in that place in me.  We are One.”  [citation?]

I don’t think that the precise definition is important, but I do know that when we silently meet anyone with the intention  behind that word, something really magical and profound can happen.  Just try it and see.  Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if we remember to turn on the light. 

Namaste  :) 

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Related Posts:

• Blogging's Hidden Jewel
• A Red Violin and 'just another weekday morning'

Credits:  Thanks to Nik Askew (soulbiographies) for the video

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How to Save the World

As we approach Christmas I get a sense that the dial on the world marked 'fear' has somehow got turned up a notch or two this last year or so.  This post is my small way of adding a little counterbalance, a message of hope, to all that dour noise out there.

Harry Potter is one boy in a long line of mythical heroes who have reminded the human race that we are so much more than we think we are, so much more powerful than we seem to know.  Jesus said that we would someday do even greater works than He;  should we not take Him at His word?  And should not 'someday' be today?".... Marianne Williamson

The line drawn between which heroes are mythical and which are real can get a little blurry, but debate this and we miss the whole point.  Whether it's Yoda teaching Luke,  Donald Shimoda's  encounter with a disillusioned writer, or a chance conversation with a wise friend, the message from their stories is always the same:  It is you we are talking to -- there is nothing special about these powers, they are yours.

But where do you go with this if you have no reference point, no burning-bush experience in your life to guide you?  Imagination is useless here, because the thinking mind cannot go beyond itself.  Tatiana (in a comment to this post) expresses this question so well:

Many people reach the point of internalising some lessons that are extremely beneficial -- a healthy dissociation from the ego, so that you stop taking traffic jams personally or lose the zeal to fight with your spouse;  a few minutes of meditation per day;  a habit of reaching out to be fully present in the here and now several times a day.  Some deep breaths when you remember, a bit of mindfulness when walking or doing chores.

All of these things are wonderful at anchoring you here and diminishing the incessant thinking, churning, neurosis that is such a part of our daily life.  However, reading the same books, listening to the same teachers also points to an experience that started it all -- a flash of understanding, a moment when it all made sense or felt okay to make no sense.  For some it was transcendent and full of joy, for others quiet and deep.  Some kept the joy forever, others had to find their way back to it.  Some reach it in prison or in desperation, others driving a car or sitting on a hill.

But what if you're one of those people that has never had a moment like that?"

The thing about experiences is this:  They all change, even the most beautiful and profound ones.  So even if it was possible to find an experience that truly satisfied, we'd still be anxious the day that it was gone. 

For most of us, experience is God -- we spend our days moving away from those we dislike, and towards those we do.  But when we move away from or towards anything, we completely miss what's already here -- we trample on this flower of Beingness that is always present[1] -- we are no longer Self aware.  So freedom from anxiety lies in the opposite direction -- turning away from experience as a source of satisfaction, to discover what doesn't change -- this Presence of awareness in which all experiences appear and disappear in -- our Self.

So maybe past experience doesn't matter at all.  What if we were already capable of choosing Peace in any situation or circumstance?

The only time that any change takes place is in this moment[2], and what we are talking about here is simply the recognition of what is really here, right now -- the pure joy, peace and love that emanates quite naturally from our Self.  So what has this got to do with anything in our past?  There are no dragons to slay, no ego to kill, no practice needed of any kind.  It is simply a choice of what we give our attention to.  Choosing Peace is both the antithesis and antidote to the ego's debilitating belief that 'enlightenment' is a journey.

But what makes something so simple and natural appear to be obscure and remote, is that we don't believe we can do that.  And we don't believe it's possible because we look to our past experience as evidence for it working. 

But of course there is little or no evidence of it working there... because it is the choice to be free of our experiences and discover what is fresh, alive and radiant in this moment... untouched by anything in our past.

It is the choice to engage with the world from the opposite orientation to the one we are used to.  It's an orientation of openness (from Love) instead of control (from fear).  And although it requires us to do nothing, 'do nothing' means letting go of our old fear-based tools of control -- judgment, planning and defence.  Love has it's own agenda, which means I must let go of mine.  And let's face it, for most of us, letting go of the moment-to-moment control of our life is something we've never seriously considered before.

So lets review this new orientation:

• Openness... a willingness to show up naked, to 'not know'
  
  When we defend against anything we don't see it as is, but how we fear it to be.  But the fear is always our own -- to be fearful of anything we must first have judged ourselves as weak and vulnerable.  So what we 'see' (and therefore believe is real) is not reality, but the reflection of our own self-belief.  Can you get a sense that when we judge anything it is really a judgement on our self?
  
  Truth cannot be defined in terms of what is right and what is wrong because right and wrong are man made concepts.  It's in allowing ourselves to open up to our whole mind that we get to see the whole picture.  We start to see it in the pure thought and feeling we have when we reach out to each other, and in the presence of joy that releases us from a fearful concept of a separate, vulnerable self.
  
  To show up naked -- to be willing to know nothing, is to create a space that allows the truth in everything to shine true.  It's in this openness that we start to see that there is nothing separate from us and therefore nothing to fear.  The world changes as we recognise that behind our angst, there is nothing about us that is not constituted wholly of Love.  Change the inner script and the outer play must follow.  It can do no other, because in reality (seen without the veil of our fearful self-perception), it is all One.
  
  "One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea. ".... Gift from the Sea
  
  
• Trust.... in the part of us that is real, that does know.
  
  Frank Capra (before he became well know) felt that his inner spirit wasn’t able to be expressed and was in doubt about how to do it.  His friend Max Winslow advised him, "There's something in your peasant soul hurting to get out.  Let it out.  Not as preachment you fool, but as entertainment." 
  
  When we invite our real Self into our life, it will find a way to express itself.  You don't have to manage it.  Just let it have a place at the table and it will be an impeccable guest.
  
  What our judgements hide is the awareness that life delights to lift us free of our fearful self-perceptions.  And not on some imagined perfect day but right now, right here in the messy mundane-ness of an 'ordinary' day.  In the midst of wining kids, a partner who doesn't really understand us, a sick body, unanswered emails, and a long list of things we'd like to do......  we can stop!  Then stand still before them all, and find the honesty within to admit that we don't really know what all this, nor the rest of life, is for.
  
  Then invite Love to teach us.  You don't have to develop this Love, it is already developed.  You just have to give it welcome and space to grow in you, fill you with what is best for you.  And if you do it will judge all things in a new light for you, it will nourish you, guide you, inspire you, heal your troubled mind, and provide the love and power to transform all obstacles for you.
  
  But of course, we have to choose to trust it first.
  .

We think of Love (I'm talking about the real deal here, not that that changes) as an emotion.  But actually it's an awareness, a way of seeing without the layer of preconception that the mind imposes.  And when you change the way you look at things like this, the things you look at change.  But this shouldn't be a mystery to us -- it is simply the power of our choice. 

We already have this ability to choose peace and allow it be so... in any situation.  We can refuse to be dismayed by effects and choose a different cause instead.  We can receive instead of plan so that we can give instead of control.  And in choosing this we discover that the law of Love negates all the laws[3] we've come to believe in this world.

This is how we change the world -- not by attempting to carve out a haven of safety or by riling against perceived injustices, but by bringing Love to it instead of fear.  We are healed as we let our Self teach us how to heal... and the world, as a part of us, is healed as we are. 

This, to me, is the greatest joy of all.  I hope you too keep choosing peace this New Year, so everyone can witness that it's the only sane choice there is.

I wish you a wonderful Christmas and a New Year full of miracles.
.
Notes:

[1].. There are many moments in a day when our Self peaks through and we see it's joy reflected back to is in the world.  In fact, it is constantly knocking on the door of our conscious awareness trying to get our attention.  This is just the nature of life --  what our defences hide.  These moments are mostly overlooked as we move through our day driven by the idea of something better (for some the ultimate experience of 'enlightenment' ;)).  In our search for the extraordinary, we dismiss the ordinary and miss everything.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
.....................Leonard Cohen

[2].. because it is the only 'time' that is real.  Both the past and future are mental constructs -- we remember and we imagine.  The 'future' is simply a projection of our stories from our past (the next chapter, if you like), and so no different from it.  A good question to ask ourselves, one that can slow this crazy hamster wheel call time enough for us to step off, is:  Who would I be without my beliefs and my stories?

[3].. of space and time, reciprocity and friendship, economics and scarcity, justice and karma, health and nutrition.... too many to mention.

Credits:

• Ms Max for the Peanuts cartoon and for dropping wonderful presents into my inbox all year long. 
• Dave Pollard, whose blog  inspired the title and idea for this post.
• To all of you who refuse to play victim to the fearful perception of a broken world... and have the courage to look past it to the Love beyond:  Thank you so much.

Related Article:  The wisdom to Know Nothing

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What gift are you ready to share?

In the comments to the last post  Dan  asked a great question, "What gift are you ready to share, Nick?"  I fudged my response slightly, because it warranted a fuller answer.  I'll try to answer this and another related question here.

My first reaction to that question was to say that from time to time I get the urge to write a book.  But with over a million books being published each year (a fifth of them from the UK -- more than any other country) you have to wonder about motives when yet another Englishman wants to join the fray.  Do I really have something to say that hasn't been said before, or would I just be adding to the slush pile of data we have to wade through to find anything original.  Surely it would it be more worthwhile to look for a better way of dealing with all this complexity than becoming part of the problem.

Right now I'm trying to be ruthlessly honest with myself about where my moment to moment attention goes (attention follow interest, right?), to resolve the competing interests in my life.  And in doing so I see this tendency to accumulate knowledge and need to 'leave our mark' everywhere.  When I look through my Del.icio.us bookmarks I can see the tell tale signs.  Why do I have bookmarks that are little more than good intentions, like 'to_do',  'to_read',  'project_ideas' and 'hot'?  And more telling still... why are they rarely, if ever, revisited!

It would be easy to put this down to a lack of clarity, but it's not that.  The 'tug' in me pulls me in a different direction. 

Whenever I've set my sails towards just one place this has invariably been my nemesis.  I don't give my best when I'm orientated towards an objective or the future, only when I'm 'playing' -- just doing what I'm doing for the joy that the doing itself brings.  And besides, whenever I'm focused on one thing I tend to overlook all the little joys and unexpected opportunities that we only really see when we're fully present.

So I've pretty much had enough of goals.  I'm much more interested in seeing what's here for us now than being distracted by any imagined future.  What I really need is an in-the-moment grappling style [1], like a modern day Samurai's swordsman, that would let me cleave all the stuff that merely entertains me from that which is real.. the stuff that brings me joy.  It's not about the interesting anymore, because for me that's unbounded.  I want a way to clear a path, to be able to respond in each moment in away that serves us best [2]

An in-the-moment grappling style

So this is what I've come up with, cobbled together from insights I've gleaned so far.  This is what it appears to take for me to cut through life's seeming complexity to stay happily centred in the moment. 

It starts out as a little 3 part mental process, but with a little practice it soon blends into a single lovely serendipitous way of being -- 'Flow', for want of a better term.

• Awareness  that there is a part of me that is always certain...
  I'm learning that my perception of life's complexity, of an infinite array of choices, is not true.  It is simply an illusion of powerlessness my mind holds up that masks my one real choice -- the ability to call upon the part of us that has no doubt how to respond to anything for our common good.  Whenever I find myself weighing alternatives I can be sure I am concerned about effects... and by doing so I deny myself the recognition that we have the ability to choose a different  cause  by turning to our Self within to respond as Love.
  . 
• Courage  to let go of my 'own' plans to enable me to listen and receive...
  For so long I tried to discover what my unique gift / path / vocation was.  It used to aggravate me to hell that I didn't know.  As soon as I got close to defining it, the thing that  'floats my boat'  would change and slip through my fingers again.  Haha - what a fool I was, trying catch such a slippery fish!  There is no 'one thing'.. and by looking for it I was putting a precondition on my own happiness.  'The thing'  changes as fast as we allow our everyday life to teach us.  What we enjoy is simply the path through our next lesson.  The 'not knowing' that troubled me was actually the gift in disguise -- the bridge to being able to listen and receive.  'Not knowing' was the way itself, the way to hold a clean and open space in which inspiration's script can be heard.
  . 
• Trust. 
  Confidence builds with success.  So it requires trust at first, until our experience confirms that changing the inner script does change the outer play, and that our decision to trust is well founded.  We usually think of trust as something that is earned, as in - 'Joe has proved to be trustworthy'.  But the trust we're talking about here is purely a decision, as in - 'I choose to trust Mary'.  The later type has all power in it, the former none.

Given life's temptations this sounds easier said than done, doesn't it. ;)

But not really, because once started down this path it becomes just too much fun to return to old tired ways.  This is how we learn -- by comparison.  It's how we feel about our learning experiences that determines whether we accept and integrate them.  So, even though we falter, the joy of  Flow  is so compelling it keeps drawing us back... as if life is teaching us to let go of what we think we are, so the truth of who are can shine through. 

But there's really nothing to learn here -- no prerequisites at all, except our willingness to trust this place within us that knows us as only Love, a place of complete and unchanging safety.  Seen from this perspective, enlightenment is simply the shift in our attention from what we think we need, to what is already here.

This now answers the other question that came up:  How do you differentiate the thoughts that come from our Self from those that arise from our limited self-perception? 

Just ask, "Do I feel peace in this thought?"  Peace is our road home.  And if we have difficulty in accessing our right mind (perhaps some form of fear or confusion), here's a thought that can wipe the slate clean for us:  Just for a moment, assume that we are already free - that we are the light of the world; and then ask what this Love would have us think and do.  In our willingness to relax and trust this inner guidance, we soon discover there was no call for pretence at all. :)

Our work is our love made visible".... Kahlil Gibran

So back that question --  "What gift are you ready to share?" 

What I'm finally seeing is that there's a light in us that the Universe longs to behold.  When the world sees us truly happy it will wonder at itself.  It will think:  "Is what I value all that valuable?"  ...and then this the inspiration to make a radically new choice.

So perhaps this is our most valuable gift -- to simply be a mirror, and give the world the opportunity to see that what it really needs has never been lost at all.
.

Credits:  'Bipolar Bears' by  TundraComics.com;  'Temptation' by  Elisa

Notes:

[1].. by 'grappling style' I simply mean a way of getting what we really want, and making no distinction between anyone's best interests. Like the Samurai, this can only be effortless... all power arising out of this quiet place of rest within us.

[2].. I have to admit this is actually the second time I've considered this (although the first time I didn't follow through on the idea). Ten years ago, my youngest son got into trouble at school and, trying to find a way to help him choose his actions wisely, I suggested that in facing any choice he asked himself 'what do I really want here' and then to ignore his initial impulse in favour of that wee small voice that speaks second, but always for our best interests. Simplistic advice I know, but I thought more useful for him than having to judge the circumstances or those involved each time. Looking back, I was probably wiser than I realised. There are many times since that I would have done well to take a dose of this medicine. ;)

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