Being...

What is this catch phrase in our society? 

Can we really be in the now?  

What does it mean to just be? 

 "To be, or not to be, that is the question." -Shakespeare, Hamlet

So I have to ask myself, did Shakespeare understand this in the way that we now can view it?  Perhaps to a degree when he thought about it in context with Hamlet's dilemma in the epic play.  It was important for Hamlet to embody his full self and take control over his destiny, so in that sense, be the person he was meant to.  To be in the full expression of yourself is indeed a major undertaking and most definitely a life goal if ever there could be one.  How does one even know what their "fullest" or "highest" expression could be? 

How do we know if we have self actualized?

Looking at our being-ness in this light we can examine Maslow's study of the hierarchy of needs and his analysis of peak experiences marking this point of self actualization.  He described a peak experience as being in a state of bliss, almost effortless joy and success as things happen for you because you are totally aware and awakened to all aspects of oneself.  It is being in that child-like state of wonder and open perception where things flow and happen because you are putting forth the fullness of yourself. 

So...  Where does one go to find such a place anyway? 

And how can we make it so we never leave there once we find it? 

Maslow did say that a person can be on multiple levels of his hierarchy of being simultaneously, which makes sense and also validates the idea that we can experience these euphoric states of oneness and then the next moment be back in the hum-drum banter of life. With so many avenues of experience and dimensions to our interconnection with this world it goes without saying that we can be on multiple levels a the same time.

David Hawkins' work, Power vs. Force, is filled with explanations of the varying levels of experience we are exposed to and how it is never just black and white.  His ranking of awareness he complied through his research breaks up the states of being and what emotional patterns we express the more or less we are conscious or aware.

A popular Buddhist saying goes something like, " Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.  After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."  This just illustrating that even with all of the amazing energy and power one may exude when in that state of all-being, there is still the part of us that chooses to come back to help others out of Plato's cave, or to come back into the cave to pay our bills.  It also acknowledges that we can still revert back away from our enlightened state even when we are at our greatest growth and expression of our energy...

Let's take a journey then and see how we can get ourselves there in an easy, stress-free way...

Noticing our place in the universe is a start, for it gives us our first three dimensions of experience,length, width, and depth. The difficulty lies in finding our awareness of the illusive fourth dimension we all know is a part of our reality.  This dimension I am referring to is time.  We all sense time as it is a driving force in our lives, calling us to action or requiring that we wait. 

Can we access it from a fifth dimensional perspective?

The best way to reword this question more simply would be to ask, "Can I step outside the traditional way we look at the world in order to affect change to all parts of myself in order to free my experience from this dimensional prison we lock ourselves in?"  Well that didn't quite get any more simple did it?  I hope that description helped clarify it a little though at least.  It is a pretty intricately deep idea though which requires that we suspend our understanding of the universe and our entire perception of reality.  So let's try to see what it feels like and maybe we'll revisit this concept again soon in another post in more depth.

P.D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher/mystic and student of G.I. Gurdjieff, defined this feeling with a thought experiment he describes in his book Tertium Organum.  In the book he invites us to visualize what it would be like to be in and to fully perceive that 4th dimensional state.

He has the reader close their eyes and see themselves in a room and to picture a cube floating in the middle of the room.  Now the trick of it is to close your eyes and be there and then to see the cube floating in the air from all sides simultaneously.

This perspective he is trying to get the participant to be a part of is that ubiquitous feeling of being everywhere at once, of being in the moment by being the moment. 

The simple act of noticing and being in a quiet stillness is an easy way we can be in our now without having to become time.  In previous posts I have detailed the practice of noticing as well as a visualization to perceive our stillness away from the clouds of our thoughts from our ego mind.

Stepping away from the controls of our perception periodically other than when asleep can help you to regain that quiet stillness and will help you to be in your true state of being...

A light for your path...

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Timeless awareness

To create healing now we must be in this presence to embody our past in order to move through it...

This awareness of now is the key to release, the key to peace and moving away from a life lived in the past or for the future.  So what does that truly mean, being in the now, living for today, or staying fully present? 

Being present isn't just about being aware of where you are physically, although that is a factor. A main secret to it's mastery is in the embodiment of being in the now emotionally as well.  So what does that mean?  It means being beyond the emotions, knowing that they are but passing states caused by events in the past or future oncoming events we are focusing on.  The release of this pent up storage of feeling puts you beyond hurt or worry, to a place where it is easy to see that everything will work out in the right and perfect way.  We will see things as Thom Yorke from Radiohead put it with, "everything in its right place."

So just as I have been bringing back in over and over in these posts, a major part of emotional presence lies in embracing or acknowledging these feelings or emotions so that they can be let go of.  This isn't just referring to the negative feelings either, for good must be released as well.  When we let go of them we do not enter into some emotionless state though, if that is where your thoughts were taking you.  No, rather the opposite takes place really.  We go into a hyper-emotive state where we can more objectively see others emotions clearly as well as understand our own motivations for our feelings as well. 

It's like stepping back and pulling the wool off of our emotional eyes so that we can understand all the "Whys" to our emotive experiences.  

It gives us a clear picture of who we are without all of our emotional baggage that everyone gets buried under whether through suppression or from over expression.  Remember, suppression of emotions doesn't make them go away, they only fester and well up.

So let me give you a shovel so you can start to dig yourself out of this emotional grave...

An easy mental exercise to help you identify these aberrant emotions we are working to be beyond lies in seeing the emotions as detached from your highest self.  So how do we check in with this true self, with our "silent witness," as Deepak Chopra would call it?

Taking about ten minutes each day on your own to do this visualization will help to become more aware of yourself and your emotional states so that you can work to transcend.

Now follow along and visualize this to yourself, picture it in your mind, as you read along with me. First take a deep, full breath in, all the way down to your belly and let it out slowly now, and spend a few moments just focusing on your breath as it comes in and out slowly and calmly.  Now picture the sky up above you with the bright sun high up overhead.  Feel the warmth of the sun on your face as you continue to take deep full centering breaths calming and relaxing you now as you bask in the light of the sun.  Just be still in this moment.  Now as you are quiet and still notice as thoughts about your day, worries about deadlines or any of life's difficulties just spill out into your stillness, almost as though you are holding back a levee of thoughts and its slowly seeping out.  Now see in your mind these repetitive thoughts, some negative, some not, these thoughts you have about who you are and what you are, how you feel and what you think of your surroundings.  You know those thoughts that play like a tape recording throughout your day.  Watch now as the thoughts transform in your mind into clouds as they fill up the sky and block the warmth from the sun.  So now picture yourself safely rising up into the sky through those clouds of busy and negatively patterned thoughts. 

Realize that as you are coming out of the cloud cover up back into the brilliance and warmth of the sun that you are moving beyond these limiting thoughts back to the you that is eternal.  You are transcending to the witness, that infinite part of you that is not attached to any emotions or preconceived notions of what the world is like. It is being in that childlike innocence.  This is where you are now.  See the clouds below you now as they drift past and feel the powerful connection from the warmth of the sun revitalizing your true self.  Know that you are beyond your emotions.  Now slowly bring yourself back into this space, the room you are in feeling comfortable and relaxed in your body, knowing in a deep place that you are better for this, and it is so.

Being beyond is its own state of perception, apart from our normal waking consciousness for the simple yet deeply significant fact that we become self aware and fully conscious in a metaphysically open state.  

In other words, there is nothing binding us to our ego.  This is the hyper-conscious state that athletes describe when they are having their best performance or game and are in the flow state where everything seems effortless.

Keep practicing with the visualization and comment below on how it is helping you move to the timelessness of now.

Light for your path