“The world you desire can be won. It exists – it is real … it is possible … it is yours!” (Ayn Rand).
Last week, our mindfulness class celebrated the end of the semester by making vision boards.
If you stumbled in, it may not have looked like anything ‘special,’ but there was a distinct knowingness in the air as we discovered new things about each other – something very relaxing about being in the hum of individual purpose and mutual intention – at the intersection of ‘what is real’ and ‘what has yet to become!’
This inescapable reality was the crux of our semester. We were investigating ourselves … learning how to navigate the inter-relational, creative cooperative called ‘being human’ — flexing the process that responds to the question:
“Who am I?”
We did this by training our attentional lens to identify and adapt to the patterns of the universal laws of attraction, relativity and causality – testing out the power of clarity in the right here right now experiences of our lives. Time and time again, our findings returned with the same results:
Attention expands what we believe, and what we believe we become!
So, we sifted through magazines – snipping away any doubt or fear or need of any certainty … trusting the vibe of a playlist that spanned over 50 years, plugged into some shared but infinitely shifting heart song!
‘Ah! I am!’
A quiet, simple hymn emerges when intention meets attention: time and space conspire!
Heart and mind intersect and cause our voices to be heard, our hands to create, our vision to emerge – to snip and tear and write and point!
In one fell swoop, we relax – we let go of the content of who we believe we are, and like a raindrop returning to the ocean, we expand into the bigness of who we are infinitely becoming!
No struggle, no angst, no suffering. No junky, negative-back-talk-identity from old wounds or cloudy memories.
When attention is ‘lit’, we see clearly – we recognize purpose knocking at the door. And, the positive action of choosing the images and words that extend our vision, empowers desire to open that door from the inside – to extend, to effect, to wake up. We realign our trajectory and rediscover a shared destiny!
The story of Christ is this destiny.
His is a story of spiritual awakening. As a man, he couldn’t escape the causality of a conditioned world. Only when he let go of the belief that this ‘time identity’ (the mind/body content that defined his idea of ‘forsaken’) was who he was completely, could he be freed from suffering.
He had to trace his way back home: in order to tap into the infinite possibility of spirit, he had to recognize the power of belief, and to recognize the power of belief he had to experience suffering through belief.
A contemporary existential crisis would look no different!
Suffering is “knocking on the door from the inside.” (Rumi) Acceptance is ‘open door!’ Awareness is ‘no door!’
Take the ‘polarized’ state of our nation. The system/process that funnels our collective energy is ‘faulty’ – inefficiently distributing ‘curr’ency (door infinitely open), and/or with bias (door infinitely closed). The defect/effect responds both ways. Open or closed, the belief that a door exists ‘between’ us rather than ‘for’ us, stresses the system which causes spiritual disequilibrium – indifference, isolation, disconnection and a general lack of purpose.
The action of mutual responsibility – of architect and resident – is what allows the door to open freely, and how we can use it make a better world!
We fall just short of justice.
When we are standing in ‘right’ or wrong,’ we’re way too close to the door; we can’t ‘see’ our beliefs have created a very real world that’s keeping us apart.
Fear arrives to conquer attention and reactivity divides intention.
When equal opportunity to access that idea is not equally shared, we feel betrayed – crucified … in a state of moral crisis. This is the discomfort – the constriction – the visceral injustice as we move farther away from our shared ‘Father … our homeland – our center-point’.
Apart, it’s easy to become discontent, to feel at the mercy of some idea. Reaction causes us to miss opportunities to respond in ways that speak to a shared inter-dependence; and fear disallows us the inner-wisdom to own our sh*t – to claim the answer to the longing, “How do we move forward?” through the question, “How did we get here?”
Only the qualities of humility, courage and a sincere desire to see clearly bring about the correction – atonement and relief; and, only through a longing to be whole – holy forgiven – can we find our way home.
No doubt!
Being human is a deeply visceral experience! There’s absolutely a part of ‘me’ that wants to be seen – enjoys being seen – knows that ‘I am’ expressed when ‘I am’ seen!
Indeed!This life shines brightest through and with this body, this mind, this heart and this consciousness!
This human being is ‘more!’
It’s not a ‘belief’ that ‘i am’ more, that would be another belief disguised as ‘more’. Rather, it’s a clarity and an honesty that supports the spirit of this idea of ‘I am” to contribute to our shared potential – our response, our work, our purpose – and whatever meaningfully supports the vision of a safe world!
Now is the time to be alive … to imagine the world that you desire .. to tear, snip, paste!
It’s the reason you are here – ‘who’ you have always been: expansive and sacred at the intersection of time and space.