A kind of naturalism is almost universally recommended by religion, even by Christianity, which lays so much stress on the moral life as distinct from the life of the instincts. It is no wonder that its history is littered with ideas and even practices reflecting those of the Free Spirit. By virtue of its strong ethical idealism, Christianity has stood against the occasional attacks of antinomianism and spiritual lawlessness, but the fact remains that the feeling of absolute dependence, or letting God take entire possession of your will and thought inevitably leads to the libertinism of natural impulses, which is ‘the freedom of the spirit.’
D.T. Suzuki, the 20th century Japanese scholar, is considered an authority on Buddhist philosophy. He dedicated his life to teaching as well as learning about Zen or the quality of consciousness that dances in and out of everyday living. Suzuki dwelled in a state of awareness that transcended intellectual symbols. His conscious mind was connected to a particular aspect of consciousness, and that connection enabled him to express impulses that originated in the corridors of the universal mind. Buddhism was the vehicle he rode to travel through different qualities of consciousness, and Zen was the driver.
Suzuki’s thoughts about self separation are not unique; historical evidence of self separation is identified in every known philosophy. Living in two worlds, but only remembering one is the fundamental principle behind most Western religions. Religion presents itself as the connector between those worlds, but the laws and structure within those beliefs restrict the ability to experience and sense the freedom of the spirit that is a whole part of physical being.
In order to recognize our innate Free Spirit that blends impulses into thoughts, one must be aware that the open system of being or an Zen experience can manifest in every moment. That knowing is rooted in the aspect of self that is buried under the rubble of rationalism. Using a shovel of awareness, we can gradually remove the mental debris created by beliefs. Those beliefs bury part of self in religious mystery. We realize that modern duality and ritualistic beliefs have been a poor substitution for unity.
The fact remains that dualistic ritualism is the method of discovery in physical form even when the awareness of other aspects of consciousness are recognized. Our challenges are our motivation. Linear awareness and our freedom of the spirit are challenges that create our perception of reality. Without them we would not expand in this pot of time and space.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Beliefs Are Building Blocks
Metaphysics has usually followed a very primitive kind of quest. You know how men have always hankered after unlawful magic, and you know what a great part, in magic, words have always played. If you have his name or the formula of incantation that binds him, you can control the spirit, genie, afrite, or whatever the power may be. Solomon knew the names of all the spirits, and having their names, he held them subject to his will.
So the universe has always appeared to the natural mind as a kind of enigma, of which the key must be sought in the shape of some illuminating or power-bringing word or name. That word names the universe’s principle, and to possess it is, after a fashion, to possess the universe itself. ‘God,’ ‘Matter,’ ‘Reason,’ ‘the Absolute,’ ‘Energy,’ are so many solving names. You can rest when you have them. You are at the end of your metaphysical quest.
William James expressed those thoughts in his 1906 essay, What Pragmatism Means. The quest to find an answer to unknown aspects of the self rests in giving them a name based on our systematic value system. Once a spiritual belief is acknowledged by name, and then incorporated into physical life in some way, part of the riddle of life is solved.
Names give things character. Nothing important in human terms is unnamed; it must have a moniker to be respected and understood. The name may be filled with gray matter and fabricated truths, but name associations are accepted as fact. We create new beliefs and they conform to accepted names and then we experience them through our ideas and feelings. Feelings are a natural part of our reality. They are an extremely powerful form energy. Feelings have an impact on every phase of our reality, and that includes the weather.
A mind boggling as well as mind stimulating element of the self dances through linear time and dresses itself in the costume of the age. This aspect of the self opens cracks in our belief structure thorough physical experiences, and we expand our consciousness. Our beliefs are building blocks. We create them through metaphysical as well as objective stimulation.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Flowing Movement of Consciousness
What you want is a philosophy that will not only exercise your powers of intellectual abstraction, but that will make some positive connection with this actual world of finite human lives.
You want a system that will combine both things, the scientific loyalty to facts and willingness to take account for them, the spirit of adaptation and accommodation, in short, but also the old confidence in human values and the resultant spontaneity, whether of religious or of the romantic type. And this is your dilemma: you find two parts of your quaesitum (that which is sought after) hopelessly separated. You find empiricism with inhumanism and irreligion; or else you find a rational philosophy that indeed may call itself religious, but that keeps out of all definite touch with concrete facts and joys and sorrows.
William James in his 1906 essay, The Present Day Dilemma of Philosophy certainly makes a valid point about the nature of humanism. The valley of mental separation creates a wanting; a need to discover what’s innately known, but hidden in antiquated beliefs about what it means to be human. The philosophy of the last two thousand years is shrouded in closed systems of rationalism. Perfection in human terms is an achievement that few accomplish, but when it is defined in others, religions are created to emulate this closed minded approach to living. Perfection is not a final act of excellence; it is the flowing movement of consciousness that we all experience.
Rational beliefs define perfectionism as an illusionary state of finality where all things stop and become one; but all things are forever one in consciousness. All consciousness is constantly expanding to experience qualities of self. We establish rational beliefs to confirm what we already know; it’s a philosophy of foolishness that fuels the fire of expansion within us. Separation is a deliberate act of free will that brings us closer to remembering the seeds of multiplicity within us.
But remembering does not erase the separate system of beliefs that continues to develop choices to experience. Remembering only enhances our ability to expand our antiquated systems so awareness can seep through the cracks and exposed our synchronicity. Awareness shines a light on narrow-minded rationalism. The validity of an eternal open system of impulses generated by other areas of our own consciousness stimulates the thoughts that become rational and awareness is born in the physical quality of ego consciousness.
Attached to these invisible enzymes called awareness is a perfection that has no system or religion. It is not a physical accomplishment or a quest for excellence. It is the nature of the self experiencing contrast in order to sense other qualities of consciousness physically. Humanism is perfection remembering the multiplicity of consciousness.
You want a system that will combine both things, the scientific loyalty to facts and willingness to take account for them, the spirit of adaptation and accommodation, in short, but also the old confidence in human values and the resultant spontaneity, whether of religious or of the romantic type. And this is your dilemma: you find two parts of your quaesitum (that which is sought after) hopelessly separated. You find empiricism with inhumanism and irreligion; or else you find a rational philosophy that indeed may call itself religious, but that keeps out of all definite touch with concrete facts and joys and sorrows.
William James in his 1906 essay, The Present Day Dilemma of Philosophy certainly makes a valid point about the nature of humanism. The valley of mental separation creates a wanting; a need to discover what’s innately known, but hidden in antiquated beliefs about what it means to be human. The philosophy of the last two thousand years is shrouded in closed systems of rationalism. Perfection in human terms is an achievement that few accomplish, but when it is defined in others, religions are created to emulate this closed minded approach to living. Perfection is not a final act of excellence; it is the flowing movement of consciousness that we all experience.
Rational beliefs define perfectionism as an illusionary state of finality where all things stop and become one; but all things are forever one in consciousness. All consciousness is constantly expanding to experience qualities of self. We establish rational beliefs to confirm what we already know; it’s a philosophy of foolishness that fuels the fire of expansion within us. Separation is a deliberate act of free will that brings us closer to remembering the seeds of multiplicity within us.
But remembering does not erase the separate system of beliefs that continues to develop choices to experience. Remembering only enhances our ability to expand our antiquated systems so awareness can seep through the cracks and exposed our synchronicity. Awareness shines a light on narrow-minded rationalism. The validity of an eternal open system of impulses generated by other areas of our own consciousness stimulates the thoughts that become rational and awareness is born in the physical quality of ego consciousness.
Attached to these invisible enzymes called awareness is a perfection that has no system or religion. It is not a physical accomplishment or a quest for excellence. It is the nature of the self experiencing contrast in order to sense other qualities of consciousness physically. Humanism is perfection remembering the multiplicity of consciousness.
Monday, July 12, 2010
A World of Genius
We live in a world of genius. It surrounds, as well as fills, us with energy. Genius is defined as an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, as well as a distinctive character of spirit. This world of genius is filled with an assortment of beliefs, perceptions and expression, which manifest the experiences we live in a circular as well as linear path. Within all our experiences the element of genius thrives and expresses itself in creativity.
Our world represents expressive and intrinsical genius. We create a world within a world that conforms to a group of beliefs that are rational, collective, and conforming. We also can create a world where the character of our spirit is expressed physically by expanding our simple beliefs into more complex perceptions and desires. From this simple complexity genius appears in a variety of physical manifestations. Quantum Physics calls this manifestation consciousness.
Quantum Physics tells us everything has consciousness and it is expressed in individual as well as collective forms. It is total of all its parts, but within each part the whole exists in its entirety.
A good example of how consciousness works is a symphony. When we enter a concert hall we notice a well lit and spacious room that holds a large group of people. People are settling into specific seats to experience the particular manifestation we call music. We also notice a group of people sitting on the stage in a particular arrangement. They are in a group but seemed to be unaware of the group. Some have the same instrument in front of them, and others have one-of-a-kind instruments. There is a common thread between all these people and their instruments and that’s called the energy of music, but at this point in time they are focused on their own music and are using individual vibrations to create it.
As the audience takes their seats and looks around the hall, they see other people as well as the musicians practicing on stage. They hear musical notes filling the hall and it seems these individual notes sound nothing like the music we came to hear. The individual conversations that buzz through the audience make no sense to anyone but those expressing and listening to those thoughts.
Suddenly the lights dim, the random notes from the musicians stop, and the audience focuses on the stage and the pensive people on it. Silence permeates the concert hall and everyone within it. The conductor walks out from behind a curtain, everyone knew he would, but the random notes and what was happening around us in the concert hall, concealed his presence; his energy was always there, but we were temporarily unaware of that fact. His energy was non-physical until we became aware of him.
The audience recognizes the conductor with applauses and he bows and immediately a connection is made between his energy on stage, (which could be considered subjective energy) and the energy of the audience, (which is the objective observer.) Without saying a word in the complete silence of the moment the conductor begins to send messages to each individual on stage. Those messages are expressed in energy or the movements the conductor creates. All the random notes that were played before the conductor arrived are rearranged into another form of energy and this energy begins to tell a story. That story is expressed and experienced in a very personal way by the musicians, the audience, and the conductor.
The concert hall fills with the collective energy of music and each person connects to that energy. The audience begins to live and express this energy through their own vibrations. Each member is living that message in a different way, but the total experience is a collective one. The musical energy takes on a life of its own; it captures everyone with its vibrations and synchronicity. The concert hall reacts to the vibrations within the genius of the music and without saying a word the conductor, the orchestra, the people, and the concert hall are one in the consciousness of the music. Every aspect of consciousness within the concert hall is experiencing a form of vibrational harmony even though the room is filled with diversity. The notes that produce the music may have been played a million times before, but in that moment of collective consciousness they are expressed and experienced uniquely by all those focused on the genius within the whole, as well as the genius that each individual feels within themselves.
Outside of the walls of the concert hall there is another world that we all know and experience. In that world beliefs about separation restrict the experience of collective vibrations, but those beliefs are left at the door of the concert hall. Everyone in the hall makes a choice to experience the genius of the music they help create, and they allow it to surround them as well as totally engulf them in the awareness of a collective moment of genius.
Our world represents expressive and intrinsical genius. We create a world within a world that conforms to a group of beliefs that are rational, collective, and conforming. We also can create a world where the character of our spirit is expressed physically by expanding our simple beliefs into more complex perceptions and desires. From this simple complexity genius appears in a variety of physical manifestations. Quantum Physics calls this manifestation consciousness.
Quantum Physics tells us everything has consciousness and it is expressed in individual as well as collective forms. It is total of all its parts, but within each part the whole exists in its entirety.
A good example of how consciousness works is a symphony. When we enter a concert hall we notice a well lit and spacious room that holds a large group of people. People are settling into specific seats to experience the particular manifestation we call music. We also notice a group of people sitting on the stage in a particular arrangement. They are in a group but seemed to be unaware of the group. Some have the same instrument in front of them, and others have one-of-a-kind instruments. There is a common thread between all these people and their instruments and that’s called the energy of music, but at this point in time they are focused on their own music and are using individual vibrations to create it.
As the audience takes their seats and looks around the hall, they see other people as well as the musicians practicing on stage. They hear musical notes filling the hall and it seems these individual notes sound nothing like the music we came to hear. The individual conversations that buzz through the audience make no sense to anyone but those expressing and listening to those thoughts.
Suddenly the lights dim, the random notes from the musicians stop, and the audience focuses on the stage and the pensive people on it. Silence permeates the concert hall and everyone within it. The conductor walks out from behind a curtain, everyone knew he would, but the random notes and what was happening around us in the concert hall, concealed his presence; his energy was always there, but we were temporarily unaware of that fact. His energy was non-physical until we became aware of him.
The audience recognizes the conductor with applauses and he bows and immediately a connection is made between his energy on stage, (which could be considered subjective energy) and the energy of the audience, (which is the objective observer.) Without saying a word in the complete silence of the moment the conductor begins to send messages to each individual on stage. Those messages are expressed in energy or the movements the conductor creates. All the random notes that were played before the conductor arrived are rearranged into another form of energy and this energy begins to tell a story. That story is expressed and experienced in a very personal way by the musicians, the audience, and the conductor.
The concert hall fills with the collective energy of music and each person connects to that energy. The audience begins to live and express this energy through their own vibrations. Each member is living that message in a different way, but the total experience is a collective one. The musical energy takes on a life of its own; it captures everyone with its vibrations and synchronicity. The concert hall reacts to the vibrations within the genius of the music and without saying a word the conductor, the orchestra, the people, and the concert hall are one in the consciousness of the music. Every aspect of consciousness within the concert hall is experiencing a form of vibrational harmony even though the room is filled with diversity. The notes that produce the music may have been played a million times before, but in that moment of collective consciousness they are expressed and experienced uniquely by all those focused on the genius within the whole, as well as the genius that each individual feels within themselves.
Outside of the walls of the concert hall there is another world that we all know and experience. In that world beliefs about separation restrict the experience of collective vibrations, but those beliefs are left at the door of the concert hall. Everyone in the hall makes a choice to experience the genius of the music they help create, and they allow it to surround them as well as totally engulf them in the awareness of a collective moment of genius.
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