Rebirth... part 1

Renaissance means rebirth... 

A rebirth is a revival of the beginning, a bringing back of that time before, of that being when  we were in that child-like state, where all things were possible. It makes me think of the allegory of the movie, "the Neverending Story."

The tale's big underlying theme is about regaining or in the main character's position, retaining that child-like innocence. Saving the child-like empress in the ivory tower of pure unbridled spirit in each of us from the terror that is the nothing. This nothing being the loss of imagination or open ended awareness. It represents the complacency and loss of our ability to be aware and awake to the possibilities of the infinite.  

The nothing creeps into so many of our lives early on and robs us of our innate wonder of our pure connection to the divine and to the potential to be anything. It keeps us from pondering our personal dimensionality and if we are truly a 3 dimensional being living in a four dimensional universe or are we more than that?

So has "The Nothing" conquered your life presently?  Here are some easy signs: (but don't worry, it's not too late!)

1.You are complacent with where you are in your life.  Complacent here doesn't mean happy, it means content enough not to change things you know you could, and it kind of means you have given up on your potential, things are good enough.

2. Does television or the internet occupy most of your time, distracting you from what is really happening in your life? 

3. Do you avoid difficult situations often because you are afraid of change or what might happen so you endure misery?

4. Do you often feel bored and listless where things just don't have that same luster or excitement?

5. Do you feel stuck in your path, but can't think of a new way to solve it?

Just as we feel like things can't be changed and that we are powerless, so it is.  Think of the famous Ford quote, "whether you think you can or you can't, you're right."  if we accept our fates to be tied to complacency and mediocrity then that is all we can be.  If this is all you accept as being your reality, then your cutting yourself off at your own knees. 

The box you have created from your beliefs is the one you can't get out of...

Our limits are those which we have learned to accept.  It reminds me of the old gorilla from the film Instinct, which is based off the wonderful novel, "Ishmael,"where they offer the gorilla his freedom and he doesn't bother to go.  He has accepted his fate, he has been broken. "The nothing" has consumed his wild, untamed soul.  So it is with us. 

This experience of being consumed by our cages leaves us in a listless droll state of fearful perception.  Some of us are able to retain some of our power and potential, but unfortunately those are among the very few.  Many people let it reconstruct their psyche in such a way that they lose that feeling of joy and even the simpler form of happiness. 

Leonardo DaVinci, who, oddly synchronous enough, is considered the first and most prominent person associated with the renaissance time period, was a major advocate for maintaining the child-like empress in our lives.  He reveled in his child-like wonder.  He fought against his loss of innocence with creativity and innovation as his guides.  One of my most favorite quotes by him is where he describes using the imagination to find pictures in the cracks and imperfections of a wall.  He kept himself sharp intellectually by exercising the most important mental muscle we have and that is our imagination.  To draw in another epically famous mind, this time from the 20th century, 

Albert Einstein emphasized the fact that the imagination is more important than knowledge.  He understood that the freedom of the mind to wander and explore was something we needed to grow so that even further innovations and advancements in our society and thereby consciousness are able to come to fruition.

So how do we rediscover our old core being, our essence we showed up on Earth with?  How can we defeat our "Nothings?"

Having our own renaissance may not be as hard as it sounds.  All it takes is reflection and some reteaching so we can unlearn the programming we have been force fed by societal structures.  Call back into your mind that time of your innocence if you still can,those feelings of gentle building excitement where things are boundless. 

If this proves too difficult try this, stare at a spot that looks broken and cluttered or find a spot in the sky on a cloudy day.  Now just gently look at this spot and just for a moment try to connect what is there into something.  Make it into an object you are familiar with in your mind. Can that cloud look like a bee if you turn your head, or can those cracks or splotch of paint on the wall or in the sidewalk look like the body of a dragon? 

Take a brief moment here or there throughout your day to reconnect with your own wonderment and see where it takes you! 

We are as young or as old or as open or closed off as we accept.  Don't be afraid of the mystery of the unknown you enjoyed as a child.  Conquer your nothing, climb on Falcor and become the something you truly know you are!!!  

Light for your path...

Mirroring our truths out in all directions

What are we but mirrors...

If it is indeed true what science as well as the quantum gurus of our time have come to recognize and indemnify, then we are indeed mirrors of the reality around us under the assertion of the idea that this is definitely a holographic universe. 

A hologram is a three dimensional projection coming from a specially designed plate with light being sent through it.  The essence of this is that the holographic plate is a mirror of the whole in both directions from the micro to the macro extending out in fractal patterns. This is saying that in every piece of this echo of reality therein contains all aspects of itself.

So how does this fit into our mirror?

Our perception is looking out at this mirror of infinity only to see itself, so then the bigger question is, "How then do we not all see ourselves as this infinite, beautiful, magnificent perfection?"

This calls into the idea that our mirrors we are shining out to reflect back are dirty and blemished by our experiences and thoughts and views on the world.  This causes us to see just that, a world sullied and damaged by our own perceptions.  The clarity of the whole is marred by our picture of it.  Our perception, as the buddha said, is our reality.  So our reality is, in effect, as though we are looking through a shattered splintered mirror of ourselves.  What we are seeing is this vision of who we perceive ourselves to be as we project that system of judgments on someone else, someone outside of ourselves.

So everyone we see and interact with is never seen as they are truly, they are merely seen as we are and judged accordingly. 

We are our worst critic whether we admit it or not.  Take a second to recall your past session of self talk.  Were you encouraging yourself or berating yourself for doing something that made you upset or experience difficulty?  Now think back to the last time you said something positive to yourself, not just pride for an accomplishment, but expressing gratitude for efforts or just a happy sense of well-being about who you are as a person.  Most of us really have to search for such a moment if we can indeed find one at all.

So how do we shine up our mirror so it can show all that there is?

An often difficult first step to this goal lies in cleaning out our inner potty mouths.  We almost have to think of it like washing our mental mouths out with soap.  The negative thought we have form our negative words and this spiral extends outward as it affects each person we interact with and so on and so forth.  These words repeated enough form our actions which is what people base our character and personality on. 

It is not that we are what we have said or done, it is that our actions reflect out to the world our true nature.

So let's clean up those dirty mental mouths...

An easy but arduous task to accomplishing this soaping of our mind is a simple method called noticing.  Noticing involves just that, noticing or focusing on our internal monologue as it is happening by creating a conscious effort to pay attention to it.  Building this awareness of your own mental process will help you to free your thought patterns of the same negative degrading thoughts. 

The trick to making it work and not getting drawn into the thought patterns themselves involves two aspects, intention and detachment. 

For it to be effective one must strive to see it in an objective or detached way, to just see the thoughts as things and nothing more.  The intentional aspect of it comes before, when you decide on how you will do it.  Creating an intention to do it sets your ego mind up to be ready to be observed.  Once you have this intention in place being able to separate yourself from your mental chatter and your tape of thoughts you play over and over again will be just that much easier.

Realize that you are not your thoughts, and that you are not your feelings attached to them.

You are but the observer in this reality, just looking at the moving pictures as they dance by as shadow's in Plato's "Allegory of the Cave."  Step back from the chains in the cave and realize they are but illusions to soil your mirror.

Realize that the mirror points out of the top of the cave, to the stars shining so brilliantly in the sky.

Let's go for a walk now, out of our caves...


Light for your path...


Just be.

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Plato-s-Allegory-of-the-Cave-357719728

by Tara Shaffer