Philosophy

Energy flow and perception

Haven’t had much spare time lately, yet the few moments that have come my way I treasure. Some of those moments have been spent reading, others in Yoga, Meditation and walking the dog.

You might have noticed that it’s taking me a while to get through my latest book. I didn’t know it went I purchased it, but it’s a text book! – True studying material. And, for anyone that knows me, they know how much I love text books.

In any case, the other might while reading page 76, I had a thought that I wanted to share. Page 76 is in the chapter titled Psychological Function of the Seven Major Chakras. I’d been reading my way through the lower chakras wondering how many times I’d come back and read these sections when I came across the section on the chakra between the shoulder blades. There words here seemed to strike a nerve.

As it turns out, this particular area in my body has been the focus of my attention for years. When I was younger, I experienced joint pain and pinched nerves that left me holding my breath waiting for the pain to subside. Lately, I’ve been working on revisiting this area through yoga and massage that has reactivated some old feelings that I’m now looking forward to healing.

In any case, the words of interest I’ll quote here:

Midway between the shoulder blades, chakra 4B is associated with the ego will, or outer will. This is the center from which we act in the physical world. We go after what we want.

If this center is clockwise, we will have a positive attitude about accomplishing things in life and see other people as supports for those accomplishments. We will then have the experiences to support this view because we live it. We will experience our will and the device will in agreement. We will see the will of our friends aligned with our will. For example, if you want to write a book, you will envision your friends helping you and it being accepted by the publishers in a way that says, “yes, this is just what we were looking for.”

On the other hand, if this center is counter-clockwise, the opposite is true. We will have the misconception that God’s will and that of other people is opposed to our will. People will appear to be blocks in our way of getting what we want or in our accomplishing something. We will have to go through them or run them over to get what we want, rather than see them as helping us. We would believe statements like “my will over yours” and “my will over God’s” Deep-seated beliefs relating to how the universe functions are involved here.

Half way through reading these couple paragraphs, I couldn’t help but relate them to The Golden Rule. If you search the web, you’ll find a number of different word combinations to represent The Golden Rule. But the one that I carry with me has always been: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12).

Yet, time and time again I’ve heard people speak The Golden Rule as “Do unto others as they do unto you.”

If you look closely at these to phrases (life philosophies) you’ll notice that with the first phrase “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is a philosophy that implies that you are the originator of the energy of action. You perform the work of behaving as you’d like others to behave. You maintain your choice in actions for you get to choose how to treat others. You maintain your fee will.

When you think about the second interpretation “Do unto others as they do unto you” you no longer get to keep your choice of free will. You’re subjected to acting in the way others act around you. If you find yourself in the company of liars, this philosophical standing point would have you lying in no time at all.

If you think about it, you’ve probably met a number of people that categorize themselves following The Golden Rule, but the way that they see it is the second case above.

There is also the philosophical point of view regarding the cup half filled with water. Do you see it as half full or half empty?

Well, the thought that struck me the other day was that the chakra that Barbara Brennan talks about may have some association with this philosophical trait that people have. She basically states that if the energy flows one direction, you get a person that goes with the flow. Yet, if the energy flows the other direction you get a person that’s always battling the flow to get where they’re going. Or, in other words (words crafted by me) if the energy flows one direction you will have the tendency to see the cup as half full. Yet, if it flows the other direction you would have the tendency to see the cup as half empty.

Or, could it be that if you’re philosophy is to ‘see the cup as half full’ the energy will flow in the direction that will open a path in life that is easy and free flowing. Whereas, if you’re philosophy is to ‘see the cup as half empty’ you’ll generate energies around you that make you feel like you’re always battling the current to get where you’re going.

I wonder which one comes first?

If you where to ask me, I believe that you get to choose a particular philosophy that tends to color the way you see your life experiences. The philosophy becomes something that you resonate with. It’s like singing a song (of life) where you live out the role you choose. Then, as you ‘sing’ that philosophy the energy (of life) flows to that rhythm and rotates one way or another. Then, if you happened to cross paths with a trained physic, they would observe the flow of energy that would represent the philosophy you choose to live by.

It’s all pretty interesting and the reading is still holding my attention. I’m looking forward to finding a few more passages to share.

Hope you see your cup as half full.

Life and the physics of miracles (needs a little hug)

I had to read through the entire book to get to the one phase that stands out above all the rest to me. It’s located in the fifth to the last paragraph and it’s not even written by the author Richard Bartlett.

When we play, we invoke magic because our mind is not interfering, fretting and measuring what isn’t.

–          SB, a masterful wizard of Matrix Energetics.

That really is cutting to the heart of it all. If that statement rings as true to you as it does to me, we’ve both experienced what it’s like to step out of your mind to let your being shine through. For when the intellect gets shoved aside by the act of being the miracle of life is what’s experienced. If that shines through during the act of playing, bring it on.

If you really think about playing and let yourself reflect on your own experiences, the act of playing may take on a broader scope.

When was the last time a song moved you? There is something special about the act of singing. It is an art, yet, at the same time, it is human expression that can not only be heard, but felt. For example, if you’ve seen the move The Shawshank Redemption I’ll bet you can remember being moved by the following scene. If you’re short on time, scoot ahead to the 2 minute mark.

How can that scene not move you? The narration provided during that clip from Morgan Freeman really does sum up the situation. And, if you can remember the point when “Andy” gets back from spending two weeks on the hole, he mentioned something like; you can lock away a man, but they can never take what’s in his heart. That is something that can never take away. You’ve got to stay in touch with that and never lose hope.

The moment when the person is participating with the performance the mind has stepped out of the way so the performance can be felt and experienced. You don’t see the people intellectualizing over whether or not the opera singers hit the correct notes or speak the correct words, no, you just experience it.

Here is another performance that you experience more than simply listening. Happens to be a group that I never get tired of hearing.

This, my internet friends, is playing at its finest.

I hope you haven’t forgot this performance:

What do all these clips have in common? From my point of view, the intellect has stepped back to let the soul of the person (people) shine through so that we can feel and experience the art of being. We feel what’s transpiring rather than simply seeing it or hearing it.

When reading through the physics of miracles, there were a number of locations where the author mentioned that the miracle happens when you get the head out of the way. And, this is exactly what I see when I witness the beauty in these different performances. They are miracles happening out in the open and readily available to experience if you so choose. These miracles are happening all the time. They are ever present for your enjoyment you just need to be able to recognize them as the artwork that it is.

There is another statement that rings true to me in the Manifestation chapter of Dr Bartlett’s second piece. It’s not all that different from the concept of playing.

One of the best ways to manifest what you want is to stop wanting and stop manifesting. In this way there are fewer struggles, thus freeing up far more energy to be directed unconsciously and unerringly to the target of your secret desires. Things will just show up and people will think that you’re lucky!

I believe that this is in line with what I’ve experienced. If you focus on the act of acquiring, that’s what you get – the actions that go along with attempting to acquire. If you focus on the act of being, with the knowledge that the item will come your way, the item will come your way.

He also says:

… when you consciously sustain a desire or want, the phase-conjugate opposite reality – exactly and precisely what you don’t want – is also manifested.

That statement really sums up what I observe happening with most people – or at least the ones that don’t get their requests (desires) delivered. You see, there is a difference between putting energy into a desire verses putting energy into a manifestation. The difference, how I see it, is that when you constantly think about ‘wanting’ something, you are constantly reminding yourself that you do not have it. If every day you wake up and affirm “I want a new car”, you will be constantly placing energy into the thought of not currently having a new car. Day in and day out, your energy will confirm that you ‘want’ a new car but don’t have it.

What you really want is to have the energy confirm that you already have a new car and, then, simply, not worry about it. In other words, define clearly what kind of car you desire, picture it in all its living detail. Act as if you feel the way the car drives, the smell of the interior, the sensation of acceleration and all the other fine details of the car and then simply ask to have your desires fulfilled. Now, at this point, let go of the image, but maintain the feeling.

When you do this, you have used your energy to experience the car. You have clearly outlined your desire and ‘attuned’ yourself to the act of playing with your new car. That process of ‘attuning’ yourself to your desire will set in motion the attraction that will bring that experience into manifestation.

At the same time, the conscious experience you envisioned about the new car will allow you to not dwell on the ‘wanting’ a new car because you have already experienced that new car. It is no longer energy of ‘want’ but rather energy of ‘experience.’ It’s a different focus that moves you out of dwelling on the wanting.

I hope that all makes sense. If not, let me know and I’ll rephrase it with a different collection of words.

Moving forward in the book, the first tag that I made was on the statement:

My goal for you in reading this book is that you realize that all situations in life are merely patterns of light and information.

When I read that statement, I was totally jazzed for what was to come (from page 27). At the top of that same page, the book title The Physics of Miracles confirmed that I was going to get an eye full of words all about how everything broke down into light. And, if you’ve read some of the other articles that I’ve posted about light, you could probably understand my excitement.

Well, as it turns out, he barely touched on this goal leaving me a bit disappointed, but not completely disappointed for he really touched on what’s most important – getting out of the mind to let the joy of experiencing life happen.  

I guess I’ll have to keep researching how everything breaks down into light while remembering to get out of my head!

I believe that the biggest point that Dr. Bartlett makes in this book is that there are many things in life that you simply ‘experience’ and you can try to explain them but the words used to do so don’t always paint the same picture. As with the videos that I’ve linked in; you can immediately feel the performance, but if you try to describe it using words (intellect) it’s pretty hard to clearly describe what you can so easily experience.

I guess the last concept that really stands out is that there is a ‘quantum’ difference between how the mind processes information and how the heart does. He points out that the mind processes linearly where as the heart processes in parallel. If you don’t understand the difference, processing linearly means that you process the information one item after another. Like reading words in a book. Yet, when you process with your heart, in parallel, it’s like stepping out into the backyard on a beautiful day and experiencing everything all at once. The moment of being present at that instant is full of a million wonderful things and you experience them all at the same time. As you focus on what’s happening, you start to linearly intellectualize each item in turn; the birds singing, squirrels jumping in the trees, the wind blowing and what not.

I love these quotes and look forward to reviewing this book a second time. For now, I’ve got one new act to perform on a regular basis. That is, to perform more parallel processing in life!

Enjoy the moment!

Building a vibrational pyramid of words

When I think about my childhood and all the philosophical statements that my parents spoke, one of them stands out as being the phrase upon which all others are built. I don’t know why it made such an impression on me. And, in a conversation with my mom today, it turns out that it was a statement that resonated with her as a child. It was a statement that she’d heard and it shaped her life in mysterious ways. That statement is:

If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

That saying is so simple, yet so amazingly powerful.

As a child, I learned that saying in the middle of one of my childish name calling sessions with a sibling or friend. Yet as an adult, the meaning behind the words resonates to create an environment where you’ll always see the cup as at least half full.

If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

It’s always worth repeating and, more importantly, it’s worth practicing.

This particular concept can come down to the actual words that you use. Every word that you choose has a feeling that it will convey and, if it’s accepted as the truth, it will resonate in the listener as the truth until that listener finds a way to perceive the word or words differently. If they are successful at revisiting the words and understanding them from a different perspective, the listener may be able to find that the words that were spoken (at one time in the past) no longer hold up at being the truth.

For instance, here is a phrase that was used against me at one time in the past; “You’re a Q-Tip!” The person that spoke these words empowered them with the emotional intent of an insult. When I heard them, I could easily read the tone of an insult, so the words carried the vibration of being an insult. Yet, the damaging association comes if the listener finds truth in the statement. At the time, for a while, after I figured out what the insult meant, I found a little truth in the statement. (Insult: you’re nothing but a stick with a fluffy cotton head. In other words, you’re a 98 lb weakling and you have no brains.) Sure, I’ve always been tall, skinny, not very athletic and my hair tens to stand on end. By golly, there is a bit of truth in that statement.

So, in the act of accepting that statement, I accepted the vibration intended by the speaker. For a time, I allowed myself to see the truth in the words that were spoken, and in so doing that, the insult resonated within me. I took on that anger. I took on the words spoken by someone else as if they were the truth. I saw myself as a 98 lbs weakling. I saw myself as empty headed.

Today, I view the world from a slightly different perspective. I have experienced the words others have spoken and, with many of them, I have found different truths. It is clear, in the simplest of terms, I am more they a stick with a fluffy cotton head. I no longer resonate with that insult.

The most profound part of this insult example is that the feeling or intent of the words is what shines through and resonates in the listener. That is the vibration that the listener starts to resonate with. That is what the sub-conscious takes on and makes happen. That becomes the truth. That is, it becomes the truth if the listener believes it to be the truth.

The same holds if you speak words of praise. “That is so lifelike, you are an amazing artist!” I’ve also heard words like this that carry a genuine feeling of respect and admiration for a drawing that I’ve sketched. Being the listener, if the words are accepted as being the truth, that feeling generated from the person that spoke them will resonate within you and the sub conscious will ultimately make that feeling the truth. I am an artist. I still carry the confidence spoken in those words with me today.

Now the tricky part is whose to say that the person that hears your words will be able to discern the truth from the lie? In other words, if you say “That color looks awful on you”, will the person hearing those words accept them as the truth and forever carry the association between that color and looking awful in it? Could your words, by chance, forever shape someone’s life so they never wear that particular color again?

As simple as the phrase is “that color looks awful on you”, the ramifications can be significant if the listener accepts your words as the truth.

So now, when I look at the saying:

If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

I think twice about what it is that I’m going to say. I want the words that I speak to generate feelings that uplift and inspire others with vibrations (and thoughts) that strengthen their character and help build a solid foundation upon which they can develop their own understanding of what the truth is.

When words are accepted as being truthful, the associated feeling becomes the foundation of the pyramid that goes into making up what we choose to be.

Lay a solid foundation and build a rock solid pyramid. Choose your words carefully and generate phrases that carry positive vibrations. Those around you will be forever grateful to you for your disciplined approach to speaking.

I’ll make my own Agreements; thank you

Can’t remember exactly how long ago my sister-in-law gave me this little book, but it sat on my nightstand for months. I just kept moving it around not wanting to open the cover. There always seemed to be something more interesting to grab my attention. For a long time, I felt like I had to avoid it for some unknown reason. Looking back, I’m not sure if it was my ego that got in the way, or if the timing simply wasn’t right for reading it.

Well, on my last trip to Arizona, I set aside that ego and figured the time was right. I decided to read Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements to see if I could agree with the content and message. Or simply find the flaws and discard the book. Well, here it is:

He called it “A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom”, which actually fits with the content. It’s a little book that I would recommend you seek out and give it a go. Set aside your ego a bit faster than I did, for its got helpful advice and, as the title mentions, practical guidance for making self improvement progress. It’s timeless information that you might as well apply today rather than a couple years from now.

I have to admit that The Smokey Mirrors story (that opens the book) really did catch my attention. I liked the part:

… Then something happened inside of him that transformed his life forever. He looked at this hands, he felt his body, and he heard his own voice say, “I am made of light; I am made of stars.”

He looked at the stars again, and he realized that it’s not the stars that create light, but rather light that creates the stars. “Everything is made of light,” he said, “and the space in-between isn’t empty.” And he knew that everything that exists is one living being, and that light is the messenger of life, because it is alive and contains all information.

I know that this is part of a Toltec tale, but there could be more truth to that statement about light than one might first accept. If we look back at a previous article, Is Food Another Form of Light, we saw that when molecules break down, electromagnetic energy is released (stored light) which is the energy that the body uses to perform its functions. Could it be possible that this energy performs different functions within the body than what we currently measure at a cellular level? We’ll have to explore that and see (Maybe another article in the near future!).

For now though, we’ll focus on some of the statements that I came across in The Four Agreements. One that stands out is:

The only way to store information is by agreement.

To me, this is one of the author’s key points when it comes to identifying who we are and how we let others shape us. It’s also the root of what he terms ‘white magic’ and ‘black magic’. It all stems from the spoken word. Words are uniquely human and they are created as a manifestation of who we are; the speaker. When it comes to speaking, the way you form your words is a phrase of your creation. At the same time, when your words are heard, who’s to say they are not the truth? If you speak words, and believe them to be the truth, might others also believe them to be the truth?

Ultimately, I believe one of the points that the author is trying to make is that the words you use in innocent little ways (whether they are intentional or not) may be perceived as the truth by others in ways that shape their futures in both positive and negative ways. It all depends upon whether they are believed to be the truth (or not). If the words are believed, the result is ‘white magic’ or ‘black magic’ depending on the content of the message.

A simple example might illustrate this process. If you speak the words “You’re ugly” to someone and they believe these words to be the truth, they will have made an agreement that they are ugly. They will start to identify with being ugly and, in due time, they will live up to this truth. On the flip side, if you speak “you look beautiful today” to someone and, once again, they believe it to be the truth, you will have given someone a wonderful truth that they can expand upon and continue to develop as their own truth.

Even idle chatter can be perceived as the truth. “This is ugly”, “he is disgusting”, “She has a potty mouth” or “That is beautiful” can all be easily identified with by anyone with immediate results. That is, if they believe you. If they choose to believe you.

So, the point is that what you agree too, when someone else speaks, are the things that stick with you and help shape who you think you are.

The trick is, knowing what to believe and what to discard.

This is where the author’s ideas about ‘black magic’ and ‘white magic’ come to play. If you believe the words that someone else speaks as the truth, it can act as either a good influence or a bad influence on you over time. Words are spells based upon the receiver’s acceptance. If they believe you compliment, or your insult, it will change their character as they start identifying with the statement.

Knowing this, might it make sense to choose your words wisely?

Later he writes:

Ninety-five percent of the beliefs we have stored in our minds are nothing but lies, and we suffer because we believe all these lies.

Might it be time to revisit the memories that you carry around to see what’s worth believing – at this moment in time? If someone told you that you couldn’t sing twenty years ago, is that still worth dragging around today? Is it worth the effort of relating to today? Or, has your understanding changed so that now, who you are right now, actually can see the comment from a different point of view that now shows that it’s no longer the truth? Is there something you can sing? Is there a sound that shows that the statement isn’t 100 percent true? If so, the spell loses power as long as it’s no longer believed to be the truth. As I’ve always seen it, the truth is in the eyes of the beholder!

Here is another interesting statement:

Each of us is born with a certain amount of personal power that we rebuild every day after we rest. Unfortunately, we spend all our personal power first to create all these agreements and then to keep these agreements. Our personal power is dissipated by all the agreements we have created, and the result is that we feel powerless. We have just enough power to survive each day, because most of it is used to keep the agreements that trap us in the dream of the planet. How can we change the entire dream of our life when we have no power to change even the smallest agreement?

I see a lot of truth in that statement, yet I would reword it slightly – Each of us has a specific amount of energy at any given moment. If we use that energy to maintain the agreements that we identify with, we will feel like we have less energy to use in other aspects of our lives. Or, in other words, what you focus on is where your energy goes. It’s really that simple. Focus on being ugly and you’ll perform that task eloquently!

These comments come from the chapters before the actual ‘agreement’ chapters in the book. I’ll leave it to the reader to explore The Four Agreements on their own. There are some great words of wisdom nestled away in that handy little book.

It’s your choice. It always is.