Stream of Perceptions

Life delineates itself on the canvas called time; and time never repeats: once gone, forever gone; and so is an act: once done it is never undone. Life is a sumiye-painting which must be executed once and for all time and without hesitation, without intellection, and no corrections are permissible or possible. Life is not like an oil painting that can be rubbed out and done over time and again until the artist is satisfied.

With a sumiye-painting, any brush stroke painted over a second time results in a smudge; the life has left it. All corrections show when the ink dries. So is life. We can never retract what we have once committed to deeds; nay, what has once passed through consciousness can never be rubbed out. Zen therefore ought to be caught while the thing is going on, neither before or after.

D.T.Suzuki in his 1924 essay,Practical Methods of Zen Instruction explains something we all know. Physical life works just the way Suzuki describes it. We can’t change time and we certainly can’t change our experiences. Of course we only see less than half of our entity so the part of us that is living outside of the limits of time and space are able to change the sumiye-painting we call life, but that fact is not validated by the ego.

We paint life with perceptions that change the activity of atoms. Each particle in the atom is perceptively aware of all the other particles and they respond to the stimuli they receive from other atoms. In the entire act of perception there is oneness between the perceiver and the objectively perceived event so the entire act has its own electromagnet reality and the event becomes electromagnetic motion.

During the initial process of perception the ego takes a back seat as the inner self reaches into the pool of consciousness and a reshuffling takes place. Impulses that create thought are received by the ego, which dilutes them in a bath of beliefs. Those thoughts become physical perceptions, but a psychological bridge is constructed between the inner self that exists without the limitations of time and space.

Our personalities are not static concepts. Our entity is eternal, but it does grow and change as we perceive. It makes decisions and it uses the physical body for some development, so we are always becoming. We are all portions of an event that is taking place in the universe. Our consciousness mixes with other portions of consciousness and portions of our perceptions become their perceptions. Our identity is part of other identities that function in their own fashion.

Each of us operates as a particleized being which in itself is inviolate, but on another hand is ever-changing in a stream of perceptions. Consciousness or Zen is caught when the ego stops making arbitrary designations of necessity in that stream. The ego wants to be an independent structure, but it is part of a greater whole that knows itself.

Shallowness of Character

Our ordinary life only touches the fringe of personality; it does not cause a commotion in the deepest parts of the soul. Even when religious consciousness is awakened, most of us lightly pass over it so as to leave no marks of a bitter fighting on the soul. We are thus made to live on the superficiality of things. We may be clever, bright and all that, but what we produce lacks depth, sincerity, and does not appeal to the inmost feelings. Some are utterly unable to create anything except makeshifts or imitations betraying their shallowness of character and want of spiritual experience.

D.T.Suzuki wrote those thoughts in the introduction of his 1924 work Essays in Zen Buddhism. We are a quality of consciousness living in a self-created reality of limitations in order to know the fringe as well as the whole of consciousness, but we don’t remember what consciousness is so we continue to ignore the gestalt formations and manifestations that percolate within us. Consciousness forms patterns of identity and they move faster than the speed of light.

These patterns act as psychological particles or they can operate as freewheeling identities that act as waves that flow through other identities. They form endless combinations and psychological gestalts that function as psychological particles in time and space while other portions function outside time and space. These elements of consciousness represent the unconscious aspects of the species, which become particleized in physical existence.

There is a psychological atmosphere that surrounds the earth, and our mental and psychic journeys move through this medium. There are rhythmic waves in the atmosphere that are more intense at certain times so the ordinary meets the extraordinary in a rhythmic dance of unity. We might call this experience an awakening or a religious experience depending on our perception of that inner sense. All consciousness has aspects that communicate with all realities. We are just becoming aware there is more to us because the psychological atmosphere is opening up and our egos are putting the shallowness of character aside and creating an image of self that has more depth and sincerity. This self is a blend of several other aspects of consciousness that moves through different psychological planes.

Liberated Moment

In liberated moment, we know that a new picture of life and duty is already possible; the elements already exist in many minds around you, of a doctrine of life which shall transcend any written record we have. The new statement will comprise the skepticisms as well as the faiths of society, and out of unbeliefs a creed shall be formed. For skepticisms are not gratuitous or lawless, but are limitations of the affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take them in, and make affirmations outside of them, just as much as it must include the oldest beliefs.

William James in his 1844 essay Experience makes us stop and think about our old beliefs, rituals, and ceremonies. The old belief that we are victims of the Fall of Man is breaking up as we realize the true nature of the self. We are creators of our physical experience. We can flow with the stream of positive energy that vibrates through our cells or we can sit on the bank of that stream and resist that energy.

The conscious mind is aware of the integrity of its identity, and gradually it is pulling the ego out of the antiquated mud of sin and into the fresh clear water of knowing. Our reality is changing because our desire to know the self is changing.

New beliefs change our perception. The ego perceives what the conscious mind believes. New beliefs fit together in patterns. New patterns of thought are exposing distorted rules and controlling doctrines. The slightest change in our perception alters every cell in the body. With each change we sense the growth of our own creativity. We begin to feel the liberated moment in every moment of our self created reality.

A Passion For Connection

Our different purposes are at war with each other. When one can’t crush the other out, they compromise; and the result is again different from what anyone distinctly proposed beforehand.

William James shines a light on our conscious mind in his 1907 essay, The One and the Many. There is an innate purpose in all of us and within all of us there are specific values to be fulfilled. That purpose is usually hidden under the garbage of religious, scientific and political beliefs. We place a great deal of faith in our conscious mind and let our unconscious mind function like a special ops agent. We resist our own energy because we are trained to resist what we don't understand. The unconscious mind is the most misunderstood aspect of the self.

But, some of us have a passion for connecting with the unconscious side of the mind. Some folks deny their sensual life and speak out against the desire to feel all things physical. They immerse themselves in a cosmic pool and massage their psyche until they sense the excitement of being non-physical. The unconscious pool is a hot tub that washes all the impurities of individuality as well as creativity away in the bubbles of bliss.

We are here to feel our physical experiences through our beliefs. Thank God that some sort of God managed to diversify and create millions of different forms of physical consciousness that explode and multiply from the inside out and from the outside in. Thank God that some sort of God had enough love for its own individuality to impress the greatest and the smallest and least and the most with its own unique being. The God of all religions knows itself through this flesh regardless of how that flesh is designed.

Our flesh is a our physical soul. Without the ability to express our soul physically, consciousness would not expand. Individuality is the badge of Godhood. We should all wear it with purpose, and experience it immersed in a physical as well as non-physical sense of unity.

New Vista

There is no real separation of the qualities and their subject; for fire cannot be conceived apart from its form and heat. Before the body there will be nothing embodied, so the qualities there will be no subject; how, if it was originally free, could the soul ever become bound?

The body-knower (the soul), which is unembodied, must be either knowing or unknowing; if it is knowing there must be some object to be known, and if there is this object it is not liberated. Or if the soul be declared to be unknowing, then what use to you is this imagined soul? I maintain that the absolute attainment of our end can only be found by transcending the dualism of soul and body of subject and object of that which knows and which is known. There must be a certain turning away in one’s ordinary course of life; there must be an opening up of a new vista in one’s spiritual outlook.

D.T.Suzuki wrote those thoughts in his 1927 essay, Enlightenment and Ignorance. Suzuki was a Professor of Buddhist Philosophy and the 20th century’s leading authority on Zen thought. He was not a monk or priest; he was a scholar, and was honored in every temple in Japan. Suzuki lectured on consciousness more that he lectured on Buddhism. Consciousness, which can be called Zen, engulfs all religions. Suzuki understood that. Zen and consciousness are one just like the body and soul are one in knowing the spiritual multiplicity that exists within all of us.

We are wave formations and within the waves there are several identities that function freely, just like water molecules that form ocean waves. We are all religions and all cultures in our wave of multiple realities, but we focus on one in order to fulfill our desire for value fulfillment. Our souls are also fulfilling value using our other identities that have different beliefs. The force of our wave is the combined force of all identities that function in several realities. When we turn our focus away from this reality we are able to sense the new vista Suzuki talks about.

Within this structure, our entity organizes these personalities and at times directs their activities, but each one never relinquishes its free will. Each identity has its own self-conscious part that knows its origin. We actually attain our end before we pursue it. There is no separation between the qualities that exist within our inner world and the ‘me’ that is the physical subject, but our dualistic reality expresses separation in order to expand the wave.

We can experience more of the wave, but in order to sense the more we must see the self as an independent structure that gives the wave its foaming energy and the desire to be part of the overall action of this energy instead of perceiving only portions of it that seem reasonable and limited.

A Corner of One Reality

Things exist in kinds, there are many species in each kind and what the ‘kind’ implies for one specimen, it applies also for every other specimen of that kind. We can easily conceive that every fact in the world might be singular, that is, unlike any other fact and sole of its kind. In such a world of singulars out logic would be useless, for logic works by predicting of the single instance what is true of all its kind. With no two things alike in the world, we should be unable to reason from our past experiences to our future ones. The existence of so much generic unity of things is thus perhaps the most momentous pragmatic specification of what it may mean to say ‘the world is one.’

William James in his 1907 essay The One and the Many sprinkles a little magical mental dust on our thoughts about the nature of unity. Wisdom has the innate ability to show us what is inside of facts so some sense of being within our species can be translated into a reality. Some facts can lead us away from true knowledge, and as history shows us that is certainly the case when it comes to our beliefs about unity.

There is no such thing as non-living matter. There is simply the identification of characteristics that we consider life or what we call conditions of living. Consciousness through its intent explodes into matter and that matter expresses its own creativity. Unity can be expressed by saying the creator is within its creations they become another aspect of consciousness that are gifted through innate creativity. The environment, which is another element of consciousness, can form a species and species can form the environment. Life as we know it began spontaneously in a number of species at the same time.

Electromagnetic energy units exist within all units of consciousness. They exist below the range of physical matter and they respond to emotional intensity. These units eventually form physical objects. We know ourselves through our creations. We live in a corner of one reality where the spirit meets the flesh and we form a bond of unity through our diversity. Diversity is the badge of our individual consciousness or godhood. We are constantly creating and we strive for value fulfillment by experiencing our own creations. That value fulfillment is attained by accepting the wisdom and experience within the flesh rather than denying it. Unity recognizes as well as creates the diversity within all species.

A Natural Choice

It may be normal, darling, but I’d rather be natural.

Truman Capote wrote that thought in his book, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The difference between normal and natural could be a matter of debate, but physical life is measured in normal not naturals, especially when it comes to human expression.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention one in every thirty-three babies is born with some sort of birth defect. The CDC also reports 1 in every 691 babies is born with Down syndrome. That means almost 7,000 babies are born every year with Trisomy 21, and we label them Down syndrome babies.

Over 350,000 people in the Unites States are living with Down syndrome and since they don’t fit into the norm we call ‘acceptable’ we label them disabled. Disabled means a lot of things. The dictionary defines it as a condition that weakens and destroys or it renders people legally incapable. The World English Dictionary defines it as lacking one or more physical powers that allows people to walk or coordinate movements as well as perform certain functions that require average mental performance.

The word disabled automatically sends a red flag up the pole of awareness in the minds of some folks. People are judged for what they can’t do rather than what they are capable of doing. Disabled people are put in a box of sympathy and wrapped with a bow of pity. Our sensitive emotions overrule natural common sense. We isolate them and build walls around them that only innately sensitive and natural people penetrate.

People living with some sort of physical challenge are feared; we are not educated to understand why these brave souls chose to experience physical life in a truly unique way. Just like the masses, which we call normal, they are connected to a non-physical stream of consciousness that every religion describes in a plethora of ways. But, that connection becomes distorted by our egos that separate the self from the inner self, which vibrates in natural love.

In that natural stream there are no words that describe choices made by individual consciousness. There is only an assortment of connected aspects of consciousness that have the desire to express their awareness physically. That awareness is manifested physically, and we experience it in the massive explosion of unique forms that cover the surface of the planet.

All we have to do is look around us at natural expression and we become aware that our consciousness is more than we believe it is. Some experts are discovering that Down syndrome, like other physical conditions, is a subjective choice and that choice is manifested objectively.

Other scholars believe that children and adults living with Down syndrome come into this physical world to teach us something we forgot about ourselves when the ego took control and said we are a ‘normal,’ and a separated consciousness. Everyone who spends time around a person living with Down syndrome experiences an aspect of innate knowing that is hard to ignore. That knowing is natural and is dipped in complete love.

But, why would a person choose to live with Down syndrome in a world that offers material luxuries to those that conform mentally and physically to our judgmental systems? The answer may lie in what Quantum physics is unraveling in this world of multiverses. We all may live separate but connected lives in more than one reality at a time, although that fact is hard to swallow when our ridged beliefs about religion and science are reinforced by our own ignorance.

Physicists explain that we actually do live in more than one reality at a time, and in each of those realities we appear and act differently. We are able and generally do communicate with these other selves, but we are trained to ignore the messages since we believe there is only one of us experiencing physical life.

The notion that children and adults living with Down syndrome may be closer and more connected to these counterparts and realities is gaining credence in the distorted world of normal. When DS children and adults tune out the normal world they may be communicating with those counterparts with a portion of the mind that may not be registering in the normal brain since it’s overloaded with the desire for physical worth.

Some researchers believe that people living with Down syndrome are much more aware of their multiplicity, but can’t express it physically. They do however express that fact by their actions. There is a bubble of love surrounding DS children and adults, and every time we interact with them tiny bubbles of that love permeate our own separatism so we can sense the connection we have with them and with all form of consciousness.

The nature of the self is like the nature of all other forms of consciousness. The self is non-physical energy before it becomes physical. Down syndrome humans don’t move as far away from that energy, but normal people do.

The New Zealand author Vincent O’Sullivan in his story, The Next Room summed up our normal actions this way:

If you’re different from the rest of the flock, they bite you.

What we fail to realize is we’re disabling another aspect of our self when we label another member of our flock as incapable. In more ways than one, they are much more capable than we remember, and innately more competent than our normal inflated egos.